For the past six months Incat Tasmania has been building two 35metre high speed passenger ferries for operations on the River Thames in London, at the Incat shipyard in Hobart, Australia.
British company MBNA Thames Clippers, in conjunction with Emirates Airline, has held a naming competition and from over 10,000 entries, two lucky winners were selected. The prize winners fly into Hobart this week from the UK for a sneak preview of the boats they have named.
Galaxy Clipper is the name put forward by competition winner Robert Connelly from Solihull, United Kingdom, who will celebrate his birthday while travelling in Australia with his friend David Clark. Mary Baldwin from Worthing, United Kingdom and her son William suggested the name Neptune Clipper which earned them both a trip to Hobart and Melbourne.
Incat hull 075 Galaxy Clipper and hull 076 Neptune Clipper will provide rapid passenger transport services on the River Thames in Central London on various routes ranging from Putney in the west to Royal Woolwich Arsenal in the east.
The ferries will be launched early July, sea trialled in mid-July and depart later that month on a heavy lift ship for delivery to London.
The shipyard has also recently commenced work on two 24 metre fast catamarans for Manly Fast Ferries with another two 33 metre vessels for Manly to commence soon.
All six ferries are designed by One2Three – Naval Architects of Sydney, with engineering and construction drawings by Tasmanian company Revolution Design Pty Ltd and Incat.
About MBNA Thames Clippers:
MBNA Thames Clippers is the leading River Bus service on the River Thames running a 20 minute frequency between key London piers including North Greenwich for The O2, Greenwich, Canary Wharf, Tower, London Bridge, Embankment and London Eye for Waterloo, as well as several residential piers.
In April 2013 the company won the contract to run a River Bus service from Putney to Blackfriars which allows the boats to now additionally stop at Putney, Wandsworth Riverside, Chelsea Harbour and Cadogan Pier, a total of 19 piers across the capital.
Co-founded in 1999 by Sean Collins (CEO) and Alan Woods (former Chairman), the company began with one boat servicing 80 passengers a day between Greenland and Savoy piers. Now 16 years on numbers have significantly risen to over 3.8 million passengers in 2014.
In 2006 AEG, owners and operators of The O2, acquired the majority stake in the company and since then the fleet has substantially grown to 13 vessels, shortly to be 15. River Bus Express for The O2 is an additional fast direct service between London Eye, London Bridge and Canary Wharf to The O2 at North Greenwich on arena event nights.
For more info visit the website www.thamesclippers.com or follow @ThamesClippers
For information and images:
Incat incat@incat.com.au
Thames Clippers www.thamesclippers.com
Kim Clifford on +61 (0)3 62 711333 or 0417332585]
