Page 37: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2020)

FERRIES

SOLUTIONS

TO OPTIMIZE

Ferries did not have any engineering cost, you build new. If it’s 49% or less, service agreements. Today we have on- you extend the life of the current ves-

RELIABILITY call engineering service contracts for sel. When we did our evaluation, our the boats and the terminals.” life-extension costs were close to 70%, • The creation of a new security and with passenger demand forecasts, plan. “Staten Island Ferries is consid- the decision was easy (to build new).” ered one of the highest profile ‘soft’ Currently Staten Island Ferries has a maritime targets in the U.S.,” said trio of 4,500-passenger, double-ended

DeSimone. Staten Island Ferries is also newbuilds with cycloidal propulsion unique in that it owns both the vessels under construction at Eastern Ship- and the terminal operations, so “our building in Florida, with the first sched- security plan is a hybrid plan, with uled for delivering later in 2020, the

TESTING & ANALYSIS combined vessel and terminal facilities last for delivery in early 2022. “We’re security.” big fans of Voith (cycloidal propulsion)

ALIGNMENT here,” said DeSimone. “It’s a great sys-

MACHINERY SERVICES

Building New Ferries tem. My first exposure to it was the

The decision to build new vessels is first ship I sailed on when I graduated

PRODUCT SOLUTIONS never taken lightly due to the tremen- Maritime, a research ship.” Today the dous upfront and life-cycle costs of an ferry system operates four vessels with asset that is designed to last more than the Voith system, the Barbieri class 30 years, or in the case of Staten Island and Austin class. When making the

Ferries 40 to 50 years, while operating decision on how to propel the new Ol- in the harsh marine environment. lis class of vessels, DeSimone and his “The rule of thumb is if the cost of a team came in with an open mind know- life extension is 51% of the newbuild ing that maneuverability and reliability

Growing up Maritime: Jim DeSimone grew up, literally, on the campus of SUNY Maritime, where his father Guy. J. DeSimone was a long-time,

LET US distinguished professor.

MINIMIZE

YOUR

UNPLANNED

FAILURES

Photos courtesy Jim DeSimone

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