A ship naming ceremony was held at Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards in North Vancouver for the world’s longest cable ferry.

It will be operated by BC Ferries, which is a Canadian independently managed and publicly owned company that provides passenger and vehicle ferry services.

Baynes Sound Connector is a 78.5 meters-long ferry, classed by Lloyd’s Register and named after the channel it will cross.

BC Ferries names the world’s longest cable ferry

Image: lr.org

After its delivery late this summer, the ferry will join Canada’s coastal fleet and will operate on the Buckley Bay to Denman Island route.

The ferry can accommodate 50 vehicles and 150 people, passengers and crew. It will operate with one drive cable and two guide cables. With a crossing of approximately 1900 metres, this cable ferry will be the longest one in the world, capable of speed of 8.5 knots with a normal service speed of 7.5 knots.

The last improvements are now being added to the vessel before she is towed to Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island in June. There, the ferry will be connected to its three cable links that were laid earlier in April.

Ben Thompson, LR’s Business Development Manager for Western Canada, said:

“LR Canada is very proud to be involved in this seminal project to build a cable ferry for BC Ferries at Vancouver Shipyard. It is not only the first vessel to be built at the recently upgraded Vancouver facility using the new infrastructure installed for the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy shipbuilding programme, but it is also ‎the first cable ferry to be Classed and Delegated in Canada.”

This cable ferry provides BC Ferries with projected cost savings of over $80 million over the 40-year life of the project compared to the current service. These significant annual cost savings of $2 million will help with fare affordability across the Canadian coastal ferry system.