US NAVY'S - Incat

The Vital Role of Ports
Justin Merrigan
© Andrew Cooke
Before the advent of high-speed car-carrying catamarans
during the early ‘90s the vast majority of ferry ports turned the
average passenger/car ferry around in a little less than three
hours. Today, such a time allocation is unthinkable for all but the
very largest conventional RoPax and cruise ferries.
The need for faster turnarounds became an issue during the
late ‘70s and early ‘80s, particularly with the appearance of
new generation double deck passenger car ferries disgorging
vehicle deck loads of trucks, coaches and cars onto terminal
compounds all over Europe. Large ports such as Dover where
slot times on berths were, and still are, at a premium, invested
heavily in new linkspans and multiple check-in points to meet
the requirements of these larger ferries; coping not only with
increased truck capacities but also meeting the demand to
speed up turnarounds.
If drive through double deck ferries brought the necessity for
faster turnarounds, then for operators, the high speed vessels of
the 90s turned that necessity into a burning passion. Once again
turnaround times were slashed, as most ports moved to provide
a customer service model based on airline operations.
Today, as ferry companies look to run their operations in the
most efficient manner, ports once again have an important part
to play.
Can that one hour
turnaround be reduced by
say between 15 and 30
minutes In many cases
the answer is yes.
Given the nature of a fast
ferry schedule, punctuality
is all the more important
as a delayed sailing early
morning often carries right
through the remainder
of the day. On occasion
these delays occur in port,
some being attributable to
shore staff and some to the
craft crew. In busy ports this
can mean a vessel losing its
departure “slot” and being
delayed even further by
having to go to the back of
the queue.
On some routes we are seeing crossing times extended slightly
in order to save fuel, but in many cases this has had little effect
on schedules as port turnaround times have been refined and
improved.
26 Incat THE Magazine Issue 36