B e l g i um Firm Buys T w o Jetfoils From Boeing M a r i n e Systems

Regie Voor Maritiem Transport (RMT), the state-owned ferry company of Belgium, has purchased two Jetfoils for passenger service between Ostend, Belgium, and Dover, England, from Boeing Marine Systems, Seattle, Wash.

The Jetfoil Model 929-115s are scheduled for delivery in time to begin operation for the 1981 tourist season. The purchase is valued at approximately $27.5 million including spares, operational and maintenance training, and shipment of the Jetfoils to Belgium.

The crossing between Ostend and Dover will take about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Each Jetfoil will carry 316 passengers and hand luggage.

Intercity-type trains will insure direct connections to the Jetfoil services at both ends—at Dover toward London, England, and in Ostend toward Brussels, Belgium and Cologne, Germany. The total time required to cover the distance between London and Ostend, i n c l u d i n g customs and security formalities in the English port of Dover, will be approximately 3Vi> hours. RMT will build a special Jetfoil terminal alongside the railway stations in Ostend and in Dover.

Fourteen Boeing Jetfoils are now in service worldwide, including a new service by P & 0 Jet Ferries from London to Ostend, inaugurated February 29, and B + I Lines Jetfoil service between Dublin, Ireland, and Liverpool, England, which is scheduled to begin April 25. The British Royal Navy will begin North Sea patrol with a Jetfoil derivative, HMS Speedy, this summer.

Other stories from April 15, 1980 issue

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Maritime Reporter

First published in 1881 Maritime Reporter is the world's largest audited circulation publication serving the global maritime industry.