Damen ferries: A lifeline for the community

Damen offers a diverse range of ferries for public transport, and cargo carrying vessels, often tailored to the unique needs of its clients around the world. The following are just a handful of examples of how Damen vessels play a vital role in keeping communities connected.

BC Ferries – vital community connections

For the past six years, Damen has been constructing Road Ferry 8117 E3’s for Canada’s BC Ferries. Currently, the programme is in its third phase, with Damen constructing four fully electric vessels. Upon completion, the vessels will join the BC Ferries fleet, providing vital community connections.

“It’s a fairly unique operation,” says Ceilidh Marlow, Senior Communications Advisor at BC Ferries. “We operate 25 different routes with 37 ferries out of 47 different terminals. In 2024, we transported over 22 million passengers and 9 million vehicles.” The operation she says, is as diverse as the coastline of British Columbia itself.

“If we are looking at people in Northern BC, their needs are very different from the population of Vancouver and Victoria, or the people of Vancouver Island.”

The passengers, then, are a mixed crowd, consisting of locals, commuters, and tourists. As a result, the services provided by BC Ferries are frequently of critical importance – something with which Ceilidh has had first-hand experience. “I grew up on Quadra Island and took the ferry to school. If there’s no ferry, kids don’t get to school and people don’t get to work or their important medical appointments. The routes served by the Island Class are really a lifeline to the smaller communities on BC’s coast.”

Hullo Ferries – a unique customer experience

When, in 2023, Hullo Ferries began their service connecting Nanaimo with Vancouver, a key requirement was reliability. To this end, they chose the Damen Fast Ferry 4212. “We needed a proven vessel, with plenty of redundancy – we operate two vessels, so there is always back-up available,” states Sales & Marketing Director Xander France. For its guests, Hullo has a unique, customer focused, and high tech experience in store. “We spent a lot of time researching the market, endlessly looking into every detail. We wanted to create something different. Something innovative.”

Our guests travel in one of three service tiers – Comfort, Premium or Business – in an award winning interior. Through partnering with Damen we were able to customise the interior. There are USB ports and chargers throughout, and high speed Wi-Fi – little extras that really make the difference.”

The approach has certainly worked, Xander says. “We’ve had over 700,000 guests so far, locals and tourists alike. More than anyone, though, we are serving British Columbians. We can see from our data that people are travelling more often to the mainland – we are inducing more travel.”

Isles of Scilly Steamship Company – Keeping tourism afloat

Twenty eight miles off the Cornish Coast, the Isles of Scilly lie isolated and unspoiled in the Atlantic Ocean. Of the more than 140 islands, five are inhabited, with a population of 2,200. Today, the islands are largely dependent on tourism. This is where the Isles of Steamship Company comes in. Founded in 1920, the company provides an essential transport lifeline to the community, explains CEO Stuart Reid.

“The tourism sector on Scilly is highly dependent on the transport of visitors and freight which we have provided for the past 105 years.”

Recently, the company has found itself called upon to ship larger items – tractors, minibuses, excavators, as well as larger volumes of materials. Stuart reached out to Damen who, a few years ago, had asked Coastal Workboats to build a Damen Landing Utility Vessel (LUV) 2208 for stock to ensure a very short timeframe for delivery.

“The LUV has been a brilliant addition to our fleet. The Isles of Scilly is a unique location consisting of beautiful white sandy beaches, rocky coves and tidal restricted quays. The LUV’s design, forward and aft cranes and its bow ramp allows us to deliver direct to these locations. This has really helped us to improve our service.”

Penang Ferries – A local institution

The Penang Ferry, explains CEO Dato’ Sasedharan Vasudevan, it is an institution in Malaysia.

“The Penang Ferry is about Penang itself,” he says. “In Malaysia, when you make reference to the State of Penang, you cannot avoid talking about the ferry.” The state consists of a mainland area, home to 1.1 million people, and an island with a population of around 750,000 people.

“The ferry service has been around since the early 1900s. There was no bridge until 1985, so the ferry has played a very large role in the lives of people here and is a vital mode of transportation linking Penang Island with the mainland. Besides, most people are very proud of their ferries in Penang.”

“Around 95% of ferry users are local people. Mostly they use the boats for commuting, so they really are a lifeline to the community here.” The ferry service operates four Damen Ferries 3508. Each year, the ferries transport over 2 million pedestrians and 700,000 bicycles and motorbikes.

In developing the ferry, Damen combined the functionality of transporting pedestrians and two wheelers in a single vessel. The result was increased efficiency. “Because of this we are able to undertake our operations with four, as opposed to five vessels. The Damen ferries also offer us better fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance.”