Electric catamaran passenger and car ferry

[dan_b]

https://www.wartsila.com/marine/product ... t-tasmania


That’s a big battery!

[Paul_F]

They've got a design power of 36 MW on the waterjets and a 40 MWh battery, so it's a pretty short trip. I'm guessing that's for the Buenos Aires - Colonia del Sacramento route which is 26 Nm. Not many major routes that short internationally, but nice to see the length they can handle growing

[Oliver90owner]

I watched the video. Had to back-track it a bit as I didn’t believe my ears the first time. Now wondering what unit 40MW/h represents!

[John_S]

They've got a design power of 36 MW on the waterjets and a 40 MWh battery, so it's a pretty short trip. I'm guessing that's for the Buenos Aires - Colonia del Sacramento route which is 26 Nm. Not many major routes that short internationally, but nice to see the length they can handle growing

They would be suitable for the 22Nm route from Dover to Calais, which, I understand, is the busiest such route in the world.

[Oliver90owner]

Presumably it would use only full power to accelerate and reduce the power by quite a percentage when up to cruising speed?

Analogy: Dunno about all EVs, but mine can discharge at a bit over 3C on acceleration, but at 70mph and a range of, say 210 miles, it will be discharging at about 0.3C for most of the time. I don’t expect a huge battery is going to be much different, to maximise the battery life?

The BMS would surely reduce the discharge rate as the battery becomes discharged. For a 1 1/2 hour trip, they may well require a reserve of 30 minutes in case of delays? It would be a bit of a problem if it ran out of power while at sea!

[Ken]

under uk maritime law i believe that such a craft would have to have 2 independent drive systems each capable of powering the vessel.

[dan_b]

I remember the SeaCats that ran across the Channel- they came in at the end of the Hovercraft service and for a while there was competition with them, the slower regular RoRo Ferries, and the then new kid on the block, the EuroTunnel.

Ultimately the SeaCats lost out - the Tunnel was faster and there were many more crossings per day, or if you wanted cheap and cheerful there were still the slower ferries.

Mind you, now the Tunnel is not as fast or reliable as it used to be, and the ferries are not cheap, and yet their on-board service is much much worse (remember P&O fired all their crew and hired in agency workers from India on 1/4 of the salaries)

They've got a design power of 36 MW on the waterjets and a 40 MWh battery, so it's a pretty short trip. I'm guessing that's for the Buenos Aires - Colonia del Sacramento route which is 26 Nm. Not many major routes that short internationally, but nice to see the length they can handle growing

They would be suitable for the 22Nm route from Dover to Calais, which, I understand, is the busiest such route in the world.

[Joeboy]

I remember the SeaCats that ran across the Channel- they came in at the end of the Hovercraft service and for a while there was competition with them, the slower regular RoRo Ferries, and the then new kid on the block, the EuroTunnel.

Ultimately the SeaCats lost out - the Tunnel was faster and there were many more crossings per day, or if you wanted cheap and cheerful there were still the slower ferries.

Mind you, now the Tunnel is not as fast or reliable as it used to be, and the ferries are not cheap, and yet their on-board service is much much worse (remember P&O fired all their crew and hired in agency workers from India on 1/4 of the salaries)

They've got a design power of 36 MW on the waterjets and a 40 MWh battery, so it's a pretty short trip. I'm guessing that's for the Buenos Aires - Colonia del Sacramento route which is 26 Nm. Not many major routes that short internationally, but nice to see the length they can handle growing

They would be suitable for the 22Nm route from Dover to Calais, which, I understand, is the busiest such route in the world.

We paid £97.65 to cross today. Two people, one mazda bongo.Theyre loading the lorries on now. I was amazed at how many came off.

[Paul_F]

Presumably it would use only full power to accelerate and reduce the power by quite a percentage when up to cruising speed?

Analogy: Dunno about all EVs, but mine can discharge at a bit over 3C on acceleration, but at 70mph and a range of, say 210 miles, it will be discharging at about 0.3C for most of the time. I don’t expect a huge battery is going to be much different, to maximise the battery life?

The BMS would surely reduce the discharge rate as the battery becomes discharged. For a 1 1/2 hour trip, they may well require a reserve of 30 minutes in case of delays? It would be a bit of a problem if it ran out of power while at sea!

Doesn't work like that for boats - power consumption is very closely tied to speed and only weakly to acceleration. If it's genuinely 36MW on the waterjets and a 40 MWh battery, it's discharging at 1c. Any delay it'll be parked there using virtually no power.
More interesting is how they plan to deliver it - I'm guessing a heavy lift ship?

under uk maritime law i believe that such a craft would have to have 2 independent drive systems each capable of powering the vessel.

Not going to be a problem. One of the really nice things about battery electric systems is how easy it is to design in a huge amount of redundancy.

[AE-NMidlands]

under uk maritime law i believe that such a craft would have to have 2 independent drive systems each capable of powering the vessel.

Not going to be a problem. One of the really nice things about battery electric systems is how easy it is to design in a huge amount of redundancy.

but how is a battery going to provide redundancy?
Given that conventional ships only have propellors anyway, I guess that a back-up generator for the electric drive would be better than that!