Turntable ferry

MADRIGAL

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Yes an amazing ferry, and a great team that runs it.

Quite well known up here as pass it each time go through Kyle Rhea.
And it is one of the many reasons why Scots wonder why they make such a meal out of the Cowes ferry, which should be so simple by comparison in the much calmer waters!
There is a sequence showing Frank Dye’s car and trailer carrying his Wayfarer dinghy, Wanderer, being loaded onto a turntable ferry in his film Summer Cruise in 1964, available on YouTube. The car and trailer combination takes up almost the entire turntable.
 

JumbleDuck

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There is a sequence showing Frank Dye’s car and trailer carrying his Wayfarer dinghy, Wanderer, being loaded onto a turntable ferry in his film Summer Cruise in 1964, available on YouTube. The car and trailer combination takes up almost the entire turntable.
We used to go to family holidays to Bute on the ABC-class ferries.

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Because we had a dinghy with us, they would usually load us last, leave us on the lift turntable and then unload us first. It sped things up enormously, because otherwise the process was drive onto the lift, be lowered, be rotated on the turntable, drive into the garage, cross, reverse the process to get off, using another turntable in the garage if necessary. If we did have to go all the way down they would drop the trailer off on the way, on the small aft deck.
 

johnalison

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Similar problem different solution in Dartmouth:

I watched the Dart ferry from a couple of hundred yards away once during an evening walk. The ferry got halfway across and then mysteriously stopped and returned to Dartmouth at great speed. Shortly afterwards it reappeared on its way to Kingswear with its sole occupant being an ambulance with flashing blue lights.
 

Mudisox

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I watched the Dart ferry from a couple of hundred yards away once during an evening walk. The ferry got halfway across and then mysteriously stopped and returned to Dartmouth at great speed. Shortly afterwards it reappeared on its way to Kingswear with its sole occupant being an ambulance with flashing blue lights.

And the crews are competent as well as friendly, = a rare combination. The Upper chain ferry does have to shut down at extreme spring tides through depth problems.
 

johnalison

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I watched the Dart ferry from a couple of hundred yards away once during an evening walk. The ferry got halfway across and then mysteriously stopped and returned to Dartmouth at great speed. Shortly afterwards it reappeared on its way to Kingswear with its sole occupant being an ambulance with flashing blue lights.

And the crews are competent as well as friendly, = a rare combination. The Upper chain ferry does have to shut down at extreme spring tides through depth problems.
We were chatting to a harbourmaster in Dartmouth some years ago. His father had operated the ferry and was not impressed by the level of skill his successors displayed. Apparently the worst load was to have to convey a boat-load of cattle. They had a habit of falling over and then had to be recovered with difficulty, and presumably a lot of mess.
 

easton

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I took the Cromarty Rose in 2008, it did have a two car turntable then. The bow door dropped open about 100m from the shore (100m from departure) and it couldn't return with it open (the door hung down so far into the water it couldn't get back to the ramp) so we travelled across with the bow door open and the stern of the craft into the waves/wind. At the other end a JCB was called into service to lift the door (it took a few attempts) and it was secured closed so it could beach, the strap was cut, door fell open and we could disembark. a 20 minute ferry ride that turned into a 2hr petrifying mini cruise.
 

ProDave

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One memorable crossing, I forget which vessel, approaching Cromarty it took the skipper 3 goes to get onto the slipway (anyone from these parts knows how fast a spring tide runs there, add in a bit of wind....) He couldn't hold it on the slipway it just slid off.

On the third try my instructions from the marshall were "when I wave my arms, you go for it" and I drove off at speed as the boat slid past the slipway. It went out of service for a while after that (at least until the tide slowed)
 
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