Incat Tasmania Delivers High-Speed Catamaran for South Korea
The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AustCham Korea) is delighted by the news of a Tasmanian ferry now operating the route between Ulleungdo and Pohang.
El Dorado Express was contracted by Daezer Corporation in January 2022 and officially handed over to her new owner at Incat in May 2023. Although the contract value is commercial in confidence the project value was in excess of A$65million.
The 76-metre ferry has capacity for 990 persons and 25 tonnes of cargo. Daezer were delighted that the ship achieved over 50 knots on sea trials as the speed is a major factor in their marketing for the route between Pohang and the island of Ulleung.
In addition to the sale of the ship the contribution to the Tasmanian economy was boosted by a number of executive and South Korean officials visits to Hobart over two years, the extended stay by 11 Daezer crew in Hobart for several weeks and the provisioning of the ship for the delivery voyage.
Daezer’s purchase of El Dorado Express followed the April 2022 delivery of another 76-metre ferry Santa Monica 1 to SeaWorld Express Ferry for a new route between Jindo and Jeju. Although both ships are 76-metres they were configured quite differently, the Santa Monica 1 with capacity for 621 persons and a vehicle deck to carry 86 cars or 256 lane metres for commercial vehicles. Given the vehicle deck capacity you will see that the operating speed of Santa Monica 1 is lower than El Dorado.
Incat delivered its first vessel to the region in 1995, the still highly regarded Sunflower. “The Sunflower served Ulleung island for 25 years and was only recently retired in compliance with Korean ship age limits.
Incat Tasmania is currently building a 130-metre fully electric ferry for Buquebus to operate between Argentina and Uruguay. We envisage a promising and rapidly expanding market for electric ships, however globally many ports do not yet have the shore-side infrastructure or sufficient power available to support the level of battery re-charging required. It is assumed that the situation at South Korean ports may also slow the introduction of electric vessels to that market.
