Automated docking system selected for Great Lakes e-ferry berths

Cavotec is to supply its MoorMaster automated docking technology for use with two new-build, fully electric ferries at five berths in Canada’s Great Lakes – the country’s first fully electrical non-cable vessels. One MoorMaster unit will be installed at each of the five berths, where they will be used to dock two new electric ferries that will carry passengers and vehicles between Amherst and Wolfe Islands on Lake Ontario, near Kingston, some 200km east of Toronto, Ontario. MoorMaster is a vacuum-based automated docking technology that eliminates the need for conventional docking lines. Remote-controlled vacuum pads recessed in or mounted on the quayside or pontoons, dock and release vessels in seconds. The technology has completed more than 400,000 docking operations at ferry, bulk and container handling, lock and ship-to-ship applications worldwide. The Amherst Island ferry will be 71m (230ft) long and carry up to 300 passengers and 40 vehicles. The Wolfe Island ferry will be 98m (322ft) long and have capacity for up to 399 passengers and 75 vehicles. The Amherst vessel is due to enter service in 2020, with the Wolfe Island ferry scheduled to do so a year later. According to the vessel manufacturer, Damen Shipyards, the two ferries will reduce emissions by the equivalent of seven million kilograms of carbon dioxide a year. Earlier this year, Cavotec announced orders valued at some US$10.3m for automated docking units for use with electric ferries in Norway. On completion of these projects, the company will have equipped more than 40 electric ferry ports across the Nordic region with MoorMaster. The technology is already in use throughout the 15 locks of the 600km-long (373 miles) St Lawrence Seaway trading route between Canada and the USA, and provides shipping access between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.