The three Canadian-built high-speed Ro-Pax ferries PacifiCat Explorer, PacifiCat Discovery, and PacifiCat Voyager have been sold for recycling in Egypt.
The vessels carried few commercial passengers in the 27 years since delivery, and PacifiCat Explorer logged only six months of commercial service.
Alexandria-based Fast Marine Technology said it is, "executing specialised electrical dismantling works for three... ferries located at Idku and Abuqir ports," as part of the vessels’ decommissioning and preparation for scrapping. Both ports lie east of Alexandria.
The recycling followed an unsuccessful effort to sell the ferries to be turned into civilian hospital ships.
The catamarans were built in North Vancouver by Catamaran Ferries International, a BC Ferries subsidiary, for the Horseshoe Bay–Departure Bay route linking the Lower Mainland with Vancouver Island.
The class operated only from June 1999 to March 2000. PacifiCat Voyager was completed in 2000 but never entered revenue service.
An October 1999 review by the Auditor General of British Columbia put the estimated project cost at CA$463 million (then US$313 million). The provincial government had announced the programme in 1994 at a total cost of CA$210 million (then US$154 million).
The Washington Marine Group bought the trio at auction in 2003 for US$13 million. It sold them to Abu Dhabi Mar in 2009, and the new owner planned an Arabian Gulf ferry service from 2010. The ferries were later laid up in Alexandria.
Each aluminium catamaran is 122.5 metres long and was designed to carry 1,000 passengers and 250 vehicles at a service speed of 35 knots.
