By A Staff Reporter -
MUSCAT — With its Australian-built high speed ferry Hormuz having already increased the record for the world’s fastest diesel powered vehicle passenger ferry, setting a target of 56.3 knots on November 19, 2010, the National Ferries Company of Oman has now confirmed that her sister vessel Shinas has broken that record by achieving a speed of 56.6 knots.
The record was broken on November 29, 2010 while the vessel was on passage from Wudam to Muscat in light wind and a half-metre swell. While 56.6 knots was the highest speed recorded the average speed for the entire journey was an impressive 52.5 knots. By fortunate coincidence the record was broken during the celebrations to commemorate the 40th National Day.
Glenn Williams, Austal’s executive manager for sales and marketing, said that he congratulated Mehdi al Abduwani, the Chairman of National Ferries Company and all of his team for this record breaking achievement which demonstrated the effectiveness of the partnership between the high quality design and production of the Austal built vessels and the professionalism and expertise of the management and operation of the National Ferries Company.
Shinas and Hormuz are identical 65 metre aluminium catamarans, delivered in 2008, that have the capacity to carry 208 passengers and 56 cars or 54 lane metres of trucks plus 40 cars.
The ferries provide a tourism service to Oman’s ruggedly spectacular Musandam Peninsula and are the flagship vessels in the Sultanate’s expanding marine transport.
The service linking Muscat to Khasab in the Musandam Governorate is the longest fast ferry route in the world and the two ferries were optimised to cover the 225 nautical mile journey at speeds of up to 50 knots. Each ferry is powered by four MTU 20 cylinder 1163 series diesel engines driving a Rolls Royce/KaMeWa waterjet propulsion system that was selected to achieve the strict performance targets with special consideration for the local operating conditions.
On board features also include a helicopter landing facility that has been incorporated into the design to allow for emergency operations, as may be required, by the Coast Guard.
The vessels were built in accordance with the requirements and under the survey of Det Norske Veritas, conforming to the International Maritime Organization High Speed Craft code (HSC 2000).