The unmistakable profile of the Seacat wave piercing vehicle and passenger carrying catamarans that are scattered around the globe nowadays owe their existence to the rather humble beginnings of the Incat Group. In 1983 International Catamarans Pty Ltd. (Incat) conceived the Wave Piercing fast ferry design after much research and development. Hull 013 became the 8.7m prototype, named Little Devil, with trials taking place in 1984. The results encouraged Incat to proceed with a 28 metre Wave Piercing Catamaran, Spirit of Victoria (Hull 016), which entered commercial operation in 1985. The Tassie Devil 2001 (Hull 017) was launched in December 1986 and Incat’s first foray into the UK market involved two passenger catamarans built for Sealink British Ferries’ Portsmouth-Ryde cross-solent ferry service in 1986 (The Our Lady Patricia and Our Lady Pamela). The current range of Wave Piercing Catamarans still reflects the characteristics of various early craft. The mainstream design of vehicle carrying wavepiercer burst onto the scene in 1990 when the 74 metre Seacat, the Hoverspeed Great Britain (HGB – Hull 025), was launched on 28th January 1990. On her delivery voyage from Australia to Britain the Hoverspeed Great Britain smashed the Hales Trophy/Blue Riband transatlantic crossing record by three hours and 14 minutes. Since then the 91m Buquebus owned Catalonia (Hull 047 and now Golden Fast Ferries’ Golden Express – 5,902gt/built 1998) captured this honour with a crossing of three days, nine hours and 40 minutes whilst the current holder is another Incat vessel, the 5,619gt/1998 built and 91 metre Fjord Cat that has operated across the Skagerrak for Fjord Line. The HGB’s service debut was not the smoothest but these ground-breaking craft quickly carved a niche for themselves and became commonplace at various ports around Europe and further afield. The craft grew in size and in 2007 the “Evolution One12” 112 metre design arrived, the largest so far, with the first example being delivered to Japanese operator Higashi Nihon Ferry. By 2008 Incat had built almost 40% of the world’s high-speed vehicle-passenger ferry fleet over 50 metres in length. In deadweight terms Incat has built around 60% of the world’s high-speed ferries with capacity over 750 tonnes. While the ferries initially revolutionised transport links around the United Kingdom, Incat-built ships now operate elsewhere, including North and South America, Australasia, the Mediterranean and Asia.

Powerful Namesake

The latest example of the Incat fleet was ordered by Virtu Ferries of Malta on 5th October 2016 and was given the name Saint John Paul II after Pope John Paul II. The vessel is the second Incat craft to carry such a grand name from the Catholic Church, the first being the 7,109gt/2013 built Francisco operated by Buquebus between Buenos Aires and Montevideo and named after Pope Francis.

Virtu Ferries had the honour of welcoming Pope John Paul II on board the San Frangisk, on a momentous return voyage between Grand Harbour, Valletta, St. Paul’s Islands and Gozo on 27th May 1990.

Virtu Ferries celebrated its 30th Anniversary on 17th July 2018 having initially commenced operations using the 35m Surface Effect Ship (SES) Virgin Butterfly (1988-1990). This air cushioned catamaran was passenger only and went on to operate briefly for Cowes Express on the Solent (Cowes-Southampton) as the Wight Queen in the early 1990s.

The Norwegian built, 35m long and 330 passenger/crew capacity SES San Frangisk was delivered in 1990 and in 1999 the 74m Seacat Avant Avant and the ED Travel began trials for a passenger and vehicle service.

This was followed by the purchase of the Fjellstrand-built 427 passenger and 21 car capacity San Gwann, which served the company 2001-2016. In 2003 the company also opened a seasonal Venice-to Slovenia and Croatia passenger ferry service under the name Venezia Lines.

The SES passenger ferries San Frangisk and San Pawl operate this. The 3,022gt/2006 built Maria Dolores was delivered from Austal in 2006, capable of carrying 600 passengers and 65 cars or 35 cars with capacity for 95 lanemetres of freight. This vessel was a turning point for the company and revolutionised the Malta-Sicily ferry service. A larger sister, the 8,045gt/2010 built Jean de La Valette, was delivered from Austal in 2010 with capacity for 800 passengers and 156 cars or 45 cars and 342 lanemetres for freight.

The service went from strength to strength and soon it was time to consider the next generation of vessels. The winning design this time around was a 110m long Incat built fast ferry, customised to the Operator’s requirements.

New Era

The keel was laid for Incat 089 on 16th May 2017 and construction continued apace through to late 2018. The design for this particular build was handled by Revolution Design and Seaspeed Consulting before being extensively tank tested and optimised at QinetiQ in the U.K. The ferry has been built under the DNV-GL Classification Society Rules and complies with IMO High Speed Craft HSC 2000, the Malta Flag statutory requirements and Italian Port State requirements.

The newbuild offers a significant increase in capacity for Virtu Ferries with 490 truck lanemetres providing a 43% increase in freight capacity, plus 15% more passenger capacity and 7% more car capacity than the Jean de La Valette. The vehicle deck (Deck 1) has an area of 2035.3m2 and a clear height of 4.6m. The freight lanes are 3.5m wide and the space for the 167 cars is based on one unit being 4.5m long and 2.4m wide. The vehicle deck axle load capacity is 12 tonnes per single axle/single wheel and 15 tonnes per single axle/dual wheel. The garage deck is accessed at the stern via a 12m wide and 10m long vehicle ramp (slightly offset to port) and on the forward port side by a ramp 8m wide and 7m long. Both ramp access points can handle vehicles weighing up to 50t. No space is wasted, with three cars able to park side by side width ways on either side of the forward vehicle deck where the side ramp is located, plus one centrally located freight lane extends into the vessel’s bow casing. Located midships beneath the car deck on either side is the crew accommodation for 24 persons in the form of cabins and Crew/Officer mess rooms. Deck 2 is the main passenger level (Tourist Class) for the bulk of the 900 passengers. Located centrally in the forward lounge there is a bar servery, Purser’s Office, toilets and a walk-in shop. Aft of the shop is the staircase to Deck 3 and a centrally located 40-seat Freight Driver’ Lounge. This area is flanked by seating for the aft salon and a second bar is situated in the rearmost section of this lounge. An open sun deck on Deck 2 also offers seating for 96 persons. The Deck 2 internal passenger space has an area of 1,622m2 and the external deck is134.3m2. Deck 3, with an area of 572m2, offers Business Class seating, two 8-seat VIP seating areas located forward plus a 297m2 sun deck with seating for 42 persons. Forward of the Business Class lounge are the two wings for the Navigational Bridge with the wheelhouse itself located centrally, one level higher. Air Conditioning is provided throughout by a combination of water-cooled air-conditioning plant and reverse cycle heat pump units capable of maintaining between 20-22 degrees C and 50% RH with a full passenger load, and an ambient temperature of between 12-32 degrees C and 80 % RH. Located aft within the slender twin aluminium hulls is the business end of the vessel. The hulls are of course connected by a bridging section with centre bow structure at the forward end, upon which the garage deck and passenger decks are built. Each hull is divided into ten vented, watertight compartments divided by transverse bulkheads. Two compartments in each hull are prepared as fuel tanks with additional strengthening on each of the end bulkheads and intermediate tank tops. The Saint John Paul II has an overall length of 110.60m, a beam of 28.20m, a 4.277m draught and a deadweight of 1,000t. Each hull has a maximum beam of 5.40m.

Positioned in each engine room within each hull are two resiliently mounted Series 8000 MTU 58000M71L marine diesel engines. The Series 8000 units are 20V with a bore diameter of 265mm and a stroke of 315mm. The main engines each drive a Wartsila LJX 1500SR waterjet, configured for steering and reverse, via a ZF60000 gearbox with reduction ratio suited for optimum jet shaft speed. A service speed of around 38 knots is produced, enabling the Valletta-Pozzallo crossing to be completed in 90 minutes. Four 300ekW MTU 8V2000M51A generators are fitted, arranged for automatic start-up and paralleling. The automation considers one generator to be maintained as a standby set. Passenger comfort on board is maximised by way of a ‘Naiad’ active ride control system, which combines active trim tabs aft and two hull mounted T-foils.

The Saint John Paul II was handed over to Virtu Ferries in Hobart, Tasmania, on 5th February and, the following day, commenced a 9,600 nautical mile (17,780 kilometres), 20 day delivery voyage to Malta. This journey took the vessel across the Indian Ocean, calling at the ports of Fremantle in Western Australia and Colombo in Sri Lanka for refuelling, before passing Somalia, at the Eastern tip of Africa, to transit the length of the Red Sea where she stopped for the last refuelling call at Jeddah before entering the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. The last leg of the journey, Port Said to Valletta took around 30 hours. The ferry is scheduled to enter service on the Malta/Sicily route in March 2019.

The Saint John Paul II is the fifth newbuild, and 11th high speed vessel, delivered to Virtu since the commencement of the high-speed ferry service between Malta and Sicily. The company has invested in excess of €175 million in high speed vessels that have, at some time, been operated on the Malta/Sicily route, effectively revolutionising the carriage of passengers and cargo between the neighbouring islands. Virtu Ferries are acknowledged internationally as pioneering ferry operators and, in times of humanitarian crisis, the company has operated its vessels on time-charter to the Governments of Australia, the USA, Italy, and Malta and international corporations, plus institutions such as the International Red Cross and Medicins Sans Frontier.

Special thanks must go to Judy Benson (Incat Australia Pty Ltd) for all their invaluable assistance with information & images.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS