Canada’s BC Ferries Sees New LNG Launch

Canada's BC Ferries said December 22 its fourth LNG-fuelled Salish class ferry had launched at the Remontowa Shipbuilding yard in Gdansk, Poland, ahead of sea trials late next year.

Following successful sea trials, the 107-metre vessel will make the 10,440 nautical mile journey from Poland to British Columbia in early 2022, where it will undergo final preparations before entering service in the Southern Gulf Islands in 2022. Once in service, the ferry, designed to operate on either LNG or ultra-low sulphur diesel, will replace the diesel-fuelled Mayne Queen.

The as-yet un-named ferry is the fourth Salish-class vessel to be built for BC Ferries at Remontowa, and is identical to the first three built in 2016-2017. It will carry at least 138 vehicles and up to 600 passengers and crew.

The contract for the new build was awarded in January this year and the keel laid in March. It was placed into the water (banner photo, courtesy BC Ferries) for the first time over the weekend of December 19-20.

BC Ferries has also recently refitted two Spirit-class vessels, the Spirit of British Columbia and the Spirit of Vancouver, to run on LNG. They are the largest in its fleet.