Professional Skipper - Free Sample issue (July/Aug 2011)

50 YEARS OF HERITAGE BAY BELLE II BUILDS ON The old Bay Belle (below) and the new BY KEITH INGRAM, PHOTOS BY MAGIC MEMORIES The public was invited to suggest a name for the new vessel and several suggestions were made, but there was an overwhelming response from the residents of Russell and Paihia to keep the history of the Bay Belle alive and retain the name. The Bay Belle II was built in Invercargill of solid marine alloy I construction by Gough Bros and sailed up the coast to Bay of Islands by a crew from Fullers InterCity Ferries in March. Although she is of a more modern design and construction, she shares many features of the first Bay Belle, with the open upper deck that has been so popular with travelers over the years, and side-door loadings. She was built specifically for the passenger service between Paihia and Russell with an overall length of 15.95m, a 4.98m beam, a draft of 1.3m and a displacement of about 27 tonnes. F or over 50 years the Bay Belle has been an icon of the Bay of Islands, having begun operations in the late 1961 on the famous Cream Trip cruise, taking passengers through the inner islands of the bay and along the Cape Brett Peninsula. In 1973 the Bay Belle made way for a faster, more modern vessel on the increasingly popular cruise and began a new life as the main passenger ferry vessel between the two Bay of Islands townships of Paihia and Russell, operating up to 15 return trips per day. Her marine diesel engine has clocked over 240,000 hours and throughout her 50 years of service within the Bay of Islands, the Bay Belle has carried over 5.3 million passengers and travelled more than 610,000 miles, the equivalent of 28 times around the world. Replacing the Bay Belle is a modern aluminum vessel. 8 Professional Skipper July/August 2011 r Fullers InterCity Ferries was clear about what they wanted as a replacement vessel for this short run across the bay, which is akin to a tram doing some 15 return trips daily. It was left to the designer, Tony Gough, to interpret the ideas and turn a wish list into a functional design that can be expected to last another 50 years. This in itself was a tough task, but this southern boatbuilding yard has a reputation for designing and building no-nonsense workboats and she will provide good service during her lifetime. The brief specified she had to be able to carry up to 100 passengers in all weathers, and on nice days they had to be able to get outside to enjoy the ambience of the short crossing. The top deck needed to be self-managing so the size was designed and built to enable only the maximum number of passengers up top that would stay below her stability numbers. The passenger observation deck is therefore restricted in

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