[Peetwo]

 'NOTHING to SEE HERE!' L&Ks  Dominic -   

Legend Chris Cowper calls a spade a spade on Emeralds, via Facebook: 

Chris Cowper

It looks like our NSW State Government has dumbed down the so called "Manly Fast Ferry" service for a further 15 years

Just a little history lesson.

Hydrafoils "Sydney" & "Manly" could reach a maximum of 42 knots on the Manly run.

The Government purchased 3 Australian designed and built Jetcats. These would cruise at 33 knots.

Although slower through the water than the big Hydrafoils, the Jetcats could turn around much quicker and both classes of vessels did the Sydney to Manly trip in about 13 minutes.

Yes, I know, in early years Jetcats were notoriously unreliable.

The reason for this was, the Government of the day (Liberal) ordered them with cheap, "throw away" engines.

Eventually, the Jetcats were re-powered with better engines, and a proper maintenance regime instuted.

Bring on the privatised, so called Fast Ferry Service, and their 20 minute service.

Freshwater Class : 28 minutes
Hydrafoil & Jetcat : 13 minutes
NRMA Fast Ferry : 20 minutes

Incidently, Masters on Gen II Emeralds are not allowed, under the threat of death, to complete a Circular Quay to Manly trip in under 22 minutes.

And courtesy Stephen Coulter, via Linkedin:

 

Stephen Coulter
• 3rd+
Consultant and Innovation Leader in Micromobility and Financial Services, Founder of Localift and Zipidi
5h •  5 hours ago

Transport for NSW has extended NRMA's Manly Fast Ferry contract for 15 years and is integrating it into Sydney's Opal Card caps. This is a great outcome as it is faster and more reliable than the trouble-stricken Emerald Class ferries. The announcement should see the Emerald Class reallocated to calmer Inner Harbour routes and the full Freshwater Fleet reinstated while an Australian-built "eFreshwater" is developed as the medium-term replacement.

Transport for NSW Transdev The NRMA Candy Bingham James Griffin MPZali Steggall OAM MP Sydney Ferries Transdev proud operator of Sydney Ferries
#sydney #transport #ferries #backtothefuture



New NRMA Manly Fast Ferries contract heralds the revival of the iconic Freshwater Ferries, while Emerald Class Ferries should be redeployed.

Hmm...interesting promo today courtesy of AMSA??

Australian Maritime Safety Authority
19,987 followers
2h •  2 hours ago

[size=1]Reporting is essential to maritime safety as it helps paint a more informed picture of the risks affecting the industry. Reporting helps us develop more effective safety guidance and advice for owners, operators, and crew to avoid similar occurrences in the future. 

Reporting incidents also helps us to respond quickly and efficiently to an incident when it occurs. 

A sticker is now available to display on your vessel, to remind masters and crew about the importance of incident reporting. You can order a free ‘Don’t ignore it, report it’ sticker for your vessel using our order form: http://ow.ly/RH0b50MnfrG 

Read more about marine incident reporting: http://ow.ly/3qXj50MnfrJ

Hmm...the importance of honest and prompt reporting of safety incidents goes without saying, so how come has a strongly rumoured incident of potential overloading (Master was able to avoid) on the Emerald Class II yet to be made publicly transparent? Surely even under AMSA's (seemingly biased) definition of incident categorisation this incident would have to fall under the 'serious' safety incident category? 

MTF...P2