Austal Ships to Build Another High Speed Gas Turbine Cat

Western Australian shipbuilder Austal Ships has won a $10 million contract to build another gas turbine powered catamaran, clocking up their 24th sale to China. With this phenomenal number of sales to the country, it is estimated that every year around 3 million people arrive and depart Hong Kong on an Austal built catamaran.

Following the successful introduction of the gas turbine powered 'Shun Jing' which was delivered in March last year, the Shun Gang Passenger Transportation Corporation of the PRC, was quick to place another order. This order represents the company's fourth Austal built vessel inside four years. According to Chris Pemberton, Manager of Marketing and sales, Austal's success in the Chinese market comes down to being able to offer a high quality, reliable product at competitive prices with short delivery times. "We have developed an understanding and close relationship with many Chinese operators, which is evident in the number of repeat orders we have achieved," he said. "Being able to totally customise our vessels to suit the operator's individual requirements and service market needs is also integral to our success." Today, serving the needs of the fast ferry industry comes down to offering faster and faster high speed craft. With the delivery of four mighty cats to Hong Kong in 1994. The gas turbine engine, similar to that used to power aircraft, will ensure a service speed of 40 knots with a full payload of 354 passengers. The principal dimensions of the vessel are an overall length of 40.1 metres, moulded beam of 11.5 metres and a maximum draft of 1.4 metres. The propulsion systems consists of twin Textron Lycoming TF40 engines driving KaMeWa 715 waterjets through Cincinatti Gear MA-107 gearboxes. Delivery is scheduled for September 1995 and the vessel will operate from Hong Kong to a port along the Pearl River Delta in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.