Yarmouth ferry to start sea trials this weekend

With just three weeks before it is supposed to start sailing between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine, the CAT Ferry will begin sea trials this weekend.

"There will be extensive trials, both dock trials and sea trials in South Carolina", said Mark MacDonald, president of Bay Ferries Ltd. "That will be followed by the voyage north for training exercises in both Portland and Yarmouth."

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The ferry was refloated Wednesday at Detyens Shipyard in Charleston, S.C.

The ferry was built in 2007 and is owned by the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command.

It went through an extensive refit operation that started in early April.

'A complex program'

MacDonald expects the sea trials will be completed well before the Yarmouth to Portland service is set to begin June 15.

The service will shut down for the season at the end of September.

"It is a complex program with many facets,"said MacDonald. "The trials involve testing of all vessel systems and run up of machinery to progressively higher levels while monitoring all aspects of performance."

Key technical representatives of equipment manufacturers and regulatory authorities will be present at the trials.

The new ferry will travel on a daily schedule between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine.

It will leave Yarmouth in the morning and return from Maine in the evening.

Bay Ferries estimates it will take five and a halfhours to make the crossing, about half the time it would take to drive from Yarmouth to Portland.

The Nova Scotia government is spending more than $32 million over the next two years to support the ferry service.