Red Funnel announce new fast ferry

Went to Albania on one. Had a bit of a list to starboard and I wondered if it was going to get up on its foils, but 1960's technology still worked well.
mjcoon said:
I'm sure many other people will remember Greek island hopping on (IIRC, Russian) rough old hydrofoils...
Click to expand...
 
TiggerToo said:
OK guys. You are all a bit behind the curve here.

The idea behind the hydrofoil component is about 100 years old. The first actually operating ones came in 50 years after that:

Aliscafo - Wikipedia and Enrico Forlanini - Wikipedia
(use google translate, if Italian is not your forte)
Click to expand...
I don't really think the hydrofoil part of this is the bit that is especially noteworthy....
 
100 years ago was 1924. The Russians were using them early sixties not mid- seventies as you suggest.

@flaming is right. Electric or even dual fuel is somewhat beyond the grasp of CMAL/CALMAC/Fergussons.

TiggerToo said:
OK guys. You are all a bit behind the curve here.

The idea behind the hydrofoil component is about 100 years old. The first actually operating ones came in 50 years after that:

Aliscafo - Wikipedia and Enrico Forlanini - Wikipedia
(use google translate, if Italian is not your forte)
Click to expand...
 
Many tides ago I was uncomfortably close to a red funnel hydrofoil that wiped out a nearby yacht at the start of a Round The Island race. A yacht even closer rescued the two crew who were all sorts of lucky to survive.
 
Aja said:
100 years ago was 1924. The Russians were using them early sixties not mid- seventies as you suggest.

@flaming is right. Electric or even dual fuel is somewhat beyond the grasp of CMAL/CALMAC/Fergussons.
Click to expand...
the idea of the hydrofoil was first developed by Forlanini in the first decade of the 1900's. His first working prototypes around 1910 (on the Swiss/Italian lakes).

Of course electric motors predated all of that by several decades.

The Isle of Wight ferries are not particularly novel as ideas, or realisation. But it will be fun to see some ev boats working: I hope they will turn out to be commercially viable.
 
At least RF not run by local council unlike the chain ferry so no excuse to blame the previous administration or the breakwater if it fails though for red funnel. Pleased to see RF development -just need a faster car ferry though like a Condor . Wightlink for all their new ferry Victoria of wight cannot seem to make run on time even in good weather a 30 min delay from Portsmouth seems common. In bad weather the Victoria seems to struggle unlike the old retro style saints which seem more robust. I also think the actual culture of staff at RF is better than wightlink who struggle to remember it’s a service business.
 
flaming said:
I don't really think the hydrofoil part of this is the bit that is especially noteworthy....
Click to expand...
Completely agree. Hydrofoils are old technology to Red Funnel, but the electric aspect is definitely interesting.
Not sure how they will achieve rapid turnarounds, as you would think they would need to recharge between each leg, otherwise you would be carrying huge batteries to provide enough power for a full day.
 
bignick said:
Completely agree. Hydrofoils are old technology to Red Funnel, but the electric aspect is definitely interesting.
Not sure how they will achieve rapid turnarounds, as you would think they would need to recharge between each leg, otherwise you would be carrying huge batteries to provide enough power for a full day.
Click to expand...
Our lights will go dim if they recharge at West Cowes🤣
 
The Swedes and Norwegians started introducing electric hydrofoils a couple of years ago, and one of the interisland ferries in Orkney is due to trial them soon. Given 350kW chargers are available for cars, I don’t think charging at turnarounds is going to be the rate limiting step (certainly if they can have port and starboard battery banks charging from two chargers).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top