US boat builder Front Street Shipyard is partnering with Norway-based Brødrene Aa to market, sell and build carbon fiber ferries throughout the US under the new company name Arcadia Alliance.
The new company will working in conjunction with Maine Composites Alliance and Martin Grimnes, a Norwegian composites expert living in Maine, to market the ferries to agencies seeking to replace aging, inefficient passenger vessels.
Brødrene Aa currently designs and builds carbon-fiber passenger vessels in its 86,000 ft2 Norwegian facility situated along a fjord. The company has built 50 carbon ferries to date. Unlike US ferries built of aluminum or glass fiber, Brødrene Aa’s carbon fiber ferries are lightweight and consume less fuel, releasing fewer emissions into the air, the companies claim.
‘Given the significance of ferry transport to travelers in coastal regions coupled with concerns about gas consumption and emissions, efficiency of our country’s ferries is critical,’ said JB Turner, president of Front Street Shipyard. ‘Brødrene Aa has a progressive design to reduce consumption and emissions, and they have an exceptionally efficient construction method we can apply to the US ferry market at Front Street Shipyard.’
‘Given Front Street Shipyard’s modern facility and boatbuilding capabilities, we believe their team can deliver the same high-quality vessels in the United States that we produce in Norway,’ said Leif Riksheim, chairman of the board at Brødrene Aa.
Street Shipyard will be able to begin construction on the first fast ferry in 2016.
This story uses material from Front Street Shipyard, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
