demonstrations before making the Sea-Coaster available for delivery to a commer- cial operator in late Spring 2005.
   Air Ride Craft has licensed two Florida yards to build SeaCoasters. AMI will con- struct aluminium or steel versions up to 120m long and Vectorworks Marine, based in Titusville, will produce composite vers- ions.

Great Lakes routes
Austal USA also presented a paper at the Ferries 2003 conference. The company's vice president sales and marketing. Chris Pemberton, reviewed progress on the con- struction of two Austal catamarans that are to enter service on the Great Lakes in 2004, an Auto Express 86 ordered from the company's Australian yard by Canadian American Transportation Company for operation on Lake Ontario and an Auto Express 58 ordered from Austal USA by Lake Express for operation on Lake Michigan.
   These are unlikely to be the last fast vehicle ferries ordered for service in the region, Chris Pemberton predicted. He explained, "As business and dwellings have clustered around the Great Lakes in the last 100 years, so the congestion on the road systems has magnified.
   "This congestion has bottlenecked at border crossing points, where international routes to Canada are concerned, and has been exacerbated by the imperatives that followed September 11 2001. Today for example, delays for truckers on the Peace Bridge are typically 4-5 hours, spent just waiting.
   "In the absence of new fixed links across the Lakes, the ferry is the most flexible, and

Bow and stern designs of SeaCoaster 31m vessel



Projected Sea State 2 performance of SeaCoaster 31m vessel



has the lowest investment cost of any solution. Today, we are at the threshold of new fast vehicle links across Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan, with plans for Lake Erie also well underway."

   Referring to the catamarans already ordered, Chris Pemberton said, "In concept, the vessels are radically different. The CATS vessel needs to operate at speeds over 40 knots since it will compete with a road that does


CATS specified a bow door on its Auto Express 86 to speed up turnround times

not detour too much around the Lake. In the case of Lake Express, the road alternative through Chicago is a huge detour and 34 knots will afford big time savings over driving.
   "Vitally important for the CATS design was to turnround the vessel as fast as possible since the competition with the road will be tight. The drive-through facilitated by the bow door means that off-load and on-load will be extremely fast."
   Chris Pemberton confirmed that operating in ice was not a design consideration for the Lake Express Auto Express 58 as the service will not operate between December and April.
   However he pointed out, "Attention to the docking of the vessel is relocated for southern operations during the off-season, which is a possibility."

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