GTS Finnjet - The World's Fastest (Conventional Hull) Ferry: 1977-2008

[ranwhenparked]

The 1970s was a period of instability in transportation, with the closed Suez Canal spurring rapid growth in ultra large supertankers, the final stages of containerization pushing out the remaining conventional freighters, airlines finally killing off the remaining ocean liners, American railroads collapsing in bankruptcy, US airlines adjusting to a new, deregulated marketplace, and two OAPEC oil embargos just 6 years apart. But, it also saw quite a bit of innovation, marking the introduction into service of the world's only two supersonic transports, Tupolev Tu-144 in 1975 and Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde in 1976. The focus on high speed through high technology didn't stop in the air, either, as the decade saw Finland create a sort of seagoing Concorde in the form of the GTS Finnjet. Like Concorde was for Britain and France, or the Tu-144 was for the Soviet Union, Finnjet became an important national symbol, an icon, for her country of Finland, and also fought a continual war against high operating costs throughout her career.

The process of building Finnjet began in the early 1970s, at that time, Finnlines (a subsidiary of the timber company Enso Gutzeit) and the Finland Steamship Company (Effoa) were operating a joint passenger and vehicle ferry service between Finland and West Germany, consisting of Finnlines' 7500 ton, 1400 passenger, 300 car Finnhansa and Effoa's 8600 ton, 1000 passenger, 350 car Finlandia, both built in 1966. The two partners commissioned a market research study which indicated that the market for Finland-West Germany travel was likely to increase from about 100,000 passengers per year in 1970 to at least 300,000, and possibly as many as 800,000, by 1980. Clearly, they needed a bigger ship, so in 1971, Finnlines got to work on planning one. As conceived, the new ferry would have beds for 1,500 passengers and space for 380 cars, not a huge increase over the older vessels, but the killer feature would be speed. Instead of conventional diesel engines, the new ferry would have a new and modern powertrain, with two Pratt & Whitney FT 4C-1DLF gas turbines delivering a combined 74,000hp driving her to a top speed of 31 knots (36mph), allowing her to cross from Helsinki to Travemünde (611 nautical miles) in just 22 hours, knocking about 14 hours off the typical travel time. The project name "Finnjet" was assigned to reflect this. The speed meant she could complete more round-trips in the same amount of time, meaning that the ship would have a capacity of 300,000 passengers per year all on her own.

After 2 years of initial planning, an order was placed with the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki in late 1973, which was followed by another 2 years of detailed design, with construction getting under way in 1975. Construction costs were estimated at around 250 million Markka, representing the largest single investment ever made in the travel or tourism industries in Finland (I couldn't find an exact conversion, but it appears 1975 ended with a rate of 3.49FIM/USD). Aside from the powertrain, costs were also driven by the decision to build her to ice class 1A, with a heavily reinforced hull for year-round operations in all weather. By this point, passenger traffic should have been halfway to 300,000 a year, but it became apparent that the 1970 market study had been overly optimistic. Facing the prospect of building massively expensive new ship without anyone to fill it, Enso Gutzeit convinced Effoa to pull out of the West German passenger market and leave it entirely to Finnlines, forming a new joint venture cargo line, Finncarriers, with them as compensation. After considering other alternatives, including naming the ship after the President of Finland, the development name Finnjet was eventually selected as the official name for the ship.

As she was not only fast, but quite large for the era – at 24,605 tons and 699 ft. long, the largest ferry yet built – a new terminal building had to be constructed in Helsinki and the main channel into the harbor widened to accommodate her bulk. After 3 years' of work, she was finally handed over on April 28, 1977, however a strike by the engineering officers' union delayed the maiden voyage until the middle of May. On board, Finnjet was one of the first European ferries to truly equal the comfort and luxury of a cruise ship, with several restaurants, a shopping mall, fitness center, movie theater, swimming pool, discotheque, ballroom, and well appointed private cabins. Artist Kimmo Kaivanto was commissioned to create a series of paintings to decorate the main lounges, including the enormous 3-deck high Pictures of Finland for the grand staircase, as well as bronze commemorative medal struck to celebrate the launching.

From 1977-1979, Finnjet proved popular and usually ran at reasonable capacity numbers, but her 30 knot cruising speed and 4,200 gallon per hour fuel consumption made her enormously unprofitable, as oil prices had remained stubbornly high after the 1973 embargo.

Amid rumors she would be sold, a major refit, at about 10% of the original construction cost, was carried out in the Netherlands during 1981, which added a pair of more economical Wärtsilä-Vasa diesel-electric engines of 15,000hp combined, allowing her to operate at slower speeds during the winter months when passenger demand was lower, while retaining her gas turbines for high speed service during the peak summer season.

In 1982, Enso Gutzeit finally sold a 75% stake in the ship to their old partner, Effoa, who eventually bought out the remainder in 1986. Under Effoa, she remained under the operation of Finnlines, but her service became more varied, with calls to the Soviet Union and leisure cruises to nowhere out of Helsinki during the winter months. In 1987, a refit added more passenger cabins, and 1989 saw her pass out of the Finnlines fleet with a transfer to Silja Line, in which Effoa was a partner. Most of the passenger spaces were modernized and redecorated in a series of refits in West Germany between 1987-1990, though a planned major rebuilding in the early 1990s that would have lengthened the ship by 66ft was cancelled on cost grounds.

A new transmission system installed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche-Werft in 1994 raised her top speed from an already impressive 31.5 knots to 33, further cementing her claim on the title of fastest conventionally hulled ferry ever built, and also allowing combined operation of the gas turbine and diesel electric powerplants in a hybrid configuration. Further upgrades in 2001, consisting of modifications to the gas turbines and propeller shafts and a new hydrodynamically optimized antifouling paint raised the top speed further to 33.5 knots.

During 2004, a massive refit was carried out by Aker Finnyards in Rauma, Finnland to upgrade her for a new St. Petersburg, Russia-Rostock, Germany via Tallin, Estonia route, during which her passenger areas were gutted and completely rebuilt, new rudders fitted, and bridge wings enclosed. The new route proved massively unprofitable, and Finnjet was withdrawn from service and laid up in the summer of 2005, while Silja looked for a buyer.

During this time, Finnjet was chartered to Louisiana State University for use as a temporary dormitory to house students, as well as faculty and staff from their Health Sciences Center, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, spending 2005-2006 moored along the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge. In June, 2006, ownership transferred to Silja Line's ultimate parent company, Sea Containers Ltd., and she was re-registered in the Bahamas and laid up in Freeport, pending sale.

Between 2006-2007, a number of prospective buyers came forward – ferry operators from Venezuela, Italy, and St. Kitts and Nevis, and a group of American investors who wanted to rebuild her as the world's most luxurious floating casino, but nothing came to pass until November 2007, when Netherlands-based Club Cruise purchased her and sailed her to the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy in early 2008 for another extensive rebuild as a dedicated, boutique-style cruise ship under the name Da Vinci. However, Mariotti's estimates came in higher than anticipated, so the work was called off, and Da Vinci was resold to Indian shipbreakers and left Italy for Alang under the delivery name Kingdom in May of 2008. During the transit, her original designer, naval architect and shipbuilding industrialist Martin Saarikangas, organized efforts to save the ship and bring her back to Finland, possibly as a homeless shelter or affordable housing. Aker Yards made an open offer to assist any new buyer in planning or completing reconditioning or rebuilding, but nothing came to pass. The former Finnjet was beached in Alang in June 2008, but the scrapyard, Rishi Ship Breakers, was impressed enough with the excellent condition of the ship that they suspended demolition with the thought that she might be worth more intact. Rishi made contact with Finnish investors, who inspected the ship during August of 2008 with an eye to returning her to European ferry traffic. However, after several months in the humid Indian climate with air conditioning and ventilation systems shut off, extensive mold growth had taken hold throughout the ship, and the cost of reconditioning was judged to be no longer feasible. Scrapping finally commenced in September, but it turned out to be an arduous process, lasting over a year, with the final remains not cut up until late 2009. The Indian breakers admitted that buying the ship had been a huge mistake, the thick, ice strengthened hull and substantial compartmentalization meant she cost more to demolish than the scrap value of her materials.

[Chariotoflove]

@ranwhenparked
Hooray, another installment! Hey, are you tagging these? Because this is the kind of thing where folks will want to call up the old entries.

[BaconSandwich]

That does make me wonder - what are the practical limitations in size for a hydrofoil?

[ranwhenparked]

@chariotoflove No, I'll have to look over how to do that. Some of the earlier ones had photo issues though

[Chariotoflove]

@ranwhenparked said in GTS Finnjet - The World's Fastest (Conventional Hull) Ferry: 1977-2008:

@chariotoflove No, I'll have to look over how to do that. Some of the earlier ones had photo issues though

At the bottom left of your edit window, there is a line for "enter tags here" just like you did on old Kinja.

[ranwhenparked]

@baconsandwich As far as the high speed, multi-hull ferries they build in Australia, there probably isn't any real limit - the biggest right now is the Austal-built Benchijigua Express trimaran at about 9,000 gross tons and 413ft., and can hit 42 knots and cruise at 36. Incat has a contract to build a 427ft., 13,000 ton catamaran, which will become the new world's largest multi-hull ferry and largest aluminum ship. The trouble is that they don't really tend to deal with open ocean crossings all that well, and there's a fine balance between carrying the fuel they need to handle the distance and the capacity they need to be economically viable, traditional hulls seem to be easier to scale up to be profitable on longer routes and higher capacities. The Independence-Class Littoral Combat Ships allegedly started as a design study for a high speed cruise ship, and are just a hair smaller than Benchijigua Express., and can supposedly hit 44 knots.

I believe the fastest is still the 7100 ton/325ft. Francisco, at a ridiculous 58 knots.

As far as the classic hydrofoils, where the hull is lifted totally or almost totally out of the water, I believe there is a hard practical limitation on how big they can get, but I'm not familiar enough with the math.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

Yay, another one! Now that is a real shame. Large ships like these really are an interesting proposition for creating affordable housing. I really thought its use as a temporary home for students and staff after Hurricane Katrina was a great idea. Shame it got broken up. It would be a real twist if one of these ended with "and is currently in service in. . . ."

The hybrid propulsion system is interesting. Could it use engine systems at once?

[ranwhenparked]

@whoistheleader After the new transmission, yes, both systems could be run simultaneously, before, I believe it was an either/or thing. The trouble is most of the more interesting ones have already been scrapped or are currently being dismantled

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@ranwhenparked The problem is there is no way to just have a giant oceangoing vessel. You have to use it to pay for itself. Many of these old ships simple aren't novel enough to make up for the lack of modern touches and efficiency.

[someassemblyrequired]

@ranwhenparked

Right around the 17 minute mark there's footage of the thing booking it at 30 knots.

[someassemblyrequired]

@ranwhenparked and how many ferries got their own Lego set? http://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/1575/Finnjet_Ferry

[ranwhenparked]

@someassemblyrequired That's as fast as competition water skiers in the slalom

[ranwhenparked]

@someassemblyrequired Even for as popular as ferries are in the Nordic countries, I can't think of another one

[someassemblyrequired]

@ranwhenparked wow, way more than I thought there was, though a lot were Silja Line boats: https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Promotional/subtheme-Ferries

[ranwhenparked]

@someassemblyrequired That's both surprising, and not terribly surprising

[gmporschenut also a fan of hondas]

@baconsandwich
Issue is the same with an aircraft. Greater mass, requires greater lift, which leads to greater drag and requiring more thrust. More thrust means more fuel ,and thus more mass.
It seems a few hundred tons displacement seems to be the max. Part of the problem is having enough power to overcome the hull drag and lift out. Then you're dragging that extra mass around