un deux trois CATS SANK

BC Fast Cats

The vessels are catamarans of 122.5m in length and had a service speed of 37 knots (68 km/h) and a capacity for 250 cars and 1000 passengers. The hulls of all three vessels had slightly varying murals that depict a cougar. Due to various oversights by the government, BC Ferries, design bureaus, and the shipyards, the cost of the program more than doubled from $210 million ($70 million/vessel) to almost $460 million ($150 million/vessel) and final delivery was almost 3 years behind schedule.

After entering service in 1998 many problems became apparent. These included very high diesel fuel consumption, lengthy load times, overly warm car deck, uncomfortable passenger lounges, excessive wake and many others

Conclusion

Inevitably the Fast Cat fleet was taken out of service and shelved. Finally, the BC government auctioned off the PacifiCat fleet on March 24, 2003 for $19.4 million concluding an experiment that cost BC taxpayers more than $400 Million.

Cache

The Washington Marine Group now owns the ferries and two of the three Fast Cats can be viewed at the cache location. Extra points will be awarded for additional information such as the fate of the third ferry.