Royal Crown Yachts 100' surface-effect ferry

[Jeff]

In the current issue of Professional Boatbuilder, Issue Number 75, there is a nice article on a 100' surface-effect ferry being built by Royal Crown Yachts, Tampa FL for Fast Cats Ferry Service. The ship uses a fan drive ductwork system to force air under each hull. "Each fan will put out 85,000 cu ft of air per minute at about 17" of water pressure. Air exits the fans into the cavities under each hull at an estimated speed of 100 mph." The initial R&D was done in the 90's by Don Burg of Air Ride Craft in Miami, and a 35' scale prototype was manufactured by Howard Harley at the Harley Boat Corporation. Partially finished hulls were then transferred to Royal Crown Yachts in Tampa. The article details the re-evaluation and finishing of the ship for the purpose at hand. I found it quite interesting. I wish I could find more info on the web.

LOA: 100' / 90,000 lbs.
4 x 1,100 hp Caterpillars, ZF SDS5 surface drives
2 x 300 hp Cat fan-drive engines
1,900 gal fuel
60 knots, 220 gallons per hour with all engines, fans, and generators running.

http://www.royalcrownyachts.com/
http://www.fastcats.org
http://www.proboat.com

[Scott]

modeled in Rhino:

[Scott]

And a second image from the top looking down at the duct system. These are on page 86 of Professional Boatbuilder.

[JORGE LANG]

Jeff,
We designed and fabricated the exhaust system for this boat. It was a challenge considering there were 8 exhaust systems in one boat. Let me know if you would like any more information.

[Stephen Ditmore]

I'm happy to see a U.S. designed fast ferry built, esp. one that pushes the envelope a little. There has been some fast ferry construction in the U.S., but a high proportion have been designed in England or Australia. We have the talent right here!

[gilesclark]

While it is good to see continuing work on the SES hull form unfortunately to-date it has proved to be a non starter commercially.

The most successful of this type of design has to be the Hovermarine 218s which is more akin to a hovercraft in that it has skirts forrad and aft to retain the air pressure under the hull. They have also been described, for obvious reasons, as side walled hovercraft. The Hovermarine 218s have had a glorious career in Hong Kong, running across the harbour.

Equally the Norwegian versions of an SES have predominantly been sidewall hovercraft.

The principal builders of SES vessesl to date have been Norwegian and British. Avondale did build an Air Ride 109 in the early 90s. In all about 100 SES have been built todate, over half of which are from Hovermarine.

Regards

Giles