Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd, Australian shipbuilder, secured a contract for the construction, delivery and long-term charter of a large fast vehicle ferry for Danish company Mols-Linien A/S in October.
The Ferry will be the fourth Incat vessel in the Mols Linien fleet. The Hobart shipyard will commence work on construction of the wave piercing catamaran immediately, with delivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.
Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, in Copenhagen Denmark at the Interferry Conference said “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 250 production staff are currently building four passenger vessels for Manly Fast Ferries, with another 6 boat order for Sydney Ferries to commence in 2016. This new large ship order will secure work for an expanded workforce for at least a further two years.
The newbuild super ferry, Incat hull number 088, will be named KatExpress 3, and 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 can take up to 1000 tonnes of cargo, equivalent to up to 1,000 passengers and 417 cars. Like KatExpress 1 and KatExpress 2, the new fast ferry 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% 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 91metre 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.
