Construction is well under way on KatExpress3 (088). The large fast vehicle ferry for Danish company Mols-Linien which will be the fourth Incat vessel in the Mols Linien fleet.
Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd, Australian shipbuilder, secured a contract for the construction, delivery and long term charter of the vessel in October 2015. The wave-piercing catamaran is scheduled to be delivered during the first quarter of 2017.
Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, said in Copenhagen Denmark at the Interferry Conference last year: “A large ship order to a repeat customer is proof positive of the quality and reliability of the vessels our team build in Tasmania. This is the third Incat ship that Mols Linien have added to their fleet in a period of just four years”.
The new ferry, Incat hull number 088, will be named KatExpress 3, will be an upgraded and more customer-friendly version of near sistership vessels KatExpress 1 (Incat hull 066) and KatExpress 2 (Incat 067).
The new fast ferry will take up to 1000 tonnes of cargo, equivalent to up to 1,000 passengers and 417 cars. Like KatExpress 1 and KatExpress 2, she will carry trucks, campervans, motorcycles and bicycles.
With KatExpress 1 and 2 added to their Mols Linien has increased the capacity on the Kattegat by 172 per cent since 2012. KatExpress 3 is expected to commence operation on the route between Aarhus and Odden and the route between Ebeltoft and Odden in late May 2017.
KatExpress 3 is likely to replace the company’s smallest ferry Max Mols, an Incat 91m vessel (Incat hull 048) built in 1997, and this will mean that the company can transfer up to an additional 400,000 cars a year.
