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Incat Tasmania is an Australian manufacturer of
high-speed craft A high-speed craft (HSC) is a high-speed water vessel for civilian use, also called a fastcraft or fast ferry. The first high-speed craft were often hydrofoils or hovercraft, but in the 1990s catamaran and monohull designs become more popu ...
(HSC)
catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...
ferries. Its greatest success has been with large, sea going passenger and vehicle ferries, but it has also built military transports and since 2015 it has built smaller river and bay ferries. Based in
Derwent Park Derwent Park is a Rugby League Stadium and former motorcycle speedway in Workington, England situated beside the Cumbrian River Derwent. It is used mostly for rugby league matches and is the home stadium of Workington Town who play in Leagu ...
, a suburb of
Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
,
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
, Australia, it was founded by
Bob Clifford Robert "Bob" Frederick Clifford Order of Australia, AO is an Australian shipbuilder and businessman, best known for his success in building his Incat catamaran building company into an international brand that sells Wave-piercing hull, wave p ...
. The company builds vessels using aluminium construction,
wave-piercing A wave-piercing boat hull has a very fine bow, with reduced buoyancy in the forward portions. When a wave is encountered, the lack of buoyancy means the hull pierces through the water rather than riding over the top, resulting in a smoother rid ...
and water-jet technology. Vessels have been constructed up to 130 metres in length with a size of 13,000
gross tons Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...
and with cruising speeds of up to 58 knots (107 km/h).


History

The company began in 1972 as the Sullivans Cove Ferry Company in suburban
Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
and built four small ferries before International Catamarans was formed in 1977 by a partnership between founder
Bob Clifford Robert "Bob" Frederick Clifford Order of Australia, AO is an Australian shipbuilder and businessman, best known for his success in building his Incat catamaran building company into an international brand that sells Wave-piercing hull, wave p ...
and marine architect Philip Hercus. This partnership created plans for what was probably the first large
wave piercing A wave-piercing boat hull has a very fine bow, with reduced buoyancy in the forward portions. When a wave is encountered, the lack of buoyancy means the hull pierces through the water rather than riding over the top, resulting in a smoother rid ...
catamaran in the world. However the partnership was dissolved in 1988 with Clifford remaining in Hobart trading as Incat Tasmania while Hercus returned to
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
to establish Incat Designs (Sydney), a design-only company that became Incat Crowther after a merger in 2005. Incat Crowther has no association with Incat Tasmania and its ships are built by other companies. Incat Tasmania has its own in-house design company, Revolution Design. In 1989 Incat Tasmania moved to its present location on Prince of Wales Bay, which allowed it to build larger ships, and in 1990 Incat delivered its first 74-metre fast catamaran ferry. At the same time, several other companies also began to build large aluminium vehicle carrying ferries. This new type of ship was revolutionary and over the next decade fast cats replaced most hydrofoil and hovercraft services as well as many
monohull right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unstab ...
ferries. The success of this new type of ferry led to other shipbuilders around the world using their yards to build large vehicle carrying aluminium catamarans. However many ferry operators preferred traditional monohull designs and the limited market for fast cats became crowded with manufacturers bidding low to keep their shipyards working. In August 2024, Incat purchased 12 hectares of land from
Norske Skog Norske Skog ASA, formerly Norske Skogindustrier ASA, which translates as ''Norwegian Forest Industries'', is a Norwegian pulp and paper company established in 1962. The company has long been one of the world's leading manufacturers of newsprint ...
to build a second shipyard on part of the
Boyer Mill Trading as Norske Skog Boyer, the Boyer Mill is a pulp and paper mill located in Boyer, Tasmania, Australia. Constructed in 1941 by Australian Newsprint Mills, the mill was the first producer of newsprint paper in Australasia. Producing of produ ...
site.


Products


Large wave piercing passenger and vehicle ferries

In 1990 Incat was one of the pioneers of large, fast catamaran ferries and they have been its core product ever since. The type of ship was different from earlier ferries and its instant success led to Incat becoming a major player in the industry. Over the years innovation has led to the ships becoming bigger, faster, more fuel efficient and much more stable on rough seas. Vehicle decks are often movable to make way for high trucks or extra cars. Ships in this category have been built from 74 to 130 metres long and from 3,000 to 13,000 gross tons. The 99-metre
HSC Francisco HSC ''Francisco'' is a high-speed catamaran built by Incat in Hobart, Tasmania. Powered by liquefied natural gas, she is currently the fastest passenger ship in service, reaching a speed of . Propulsion is by two GE LM2500 gas turbines, coupled wi ...
(Hull 069) is the world's fastest ship in commercial service and can achieve speeds up to .


Smaller passenger ferries

Incat began by building small ferries under 37 metres, but from 1990 it concentrated on larger vehicle-carrying catamarans. However, in 2015 the company resumed building smaller ferries and in that year it delivered river ferries for operation in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, Hobart and
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
. Since then it has designed and built more smaller ferries including two 35-metre, 400 passenger ferries (Hulls 090 and 095) for commuter runs by Port Phillip Ferries from
Melbourne Docklands Docklands is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on the western end of the central business district. Docklands had a population of 15,495 at the 2021 census. Primarily a waterfront area centred on the banks of the Yarra R ...
to Portarlington and
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...
.


Military vessels

In the 1990s several catamarans built by Incat entered naval service as fast transports, including HMAS ''Jervis Bay'' with the
Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...
and HSV-X1''Joint Venture'', ''Spearhead'' and HSV-2 ''Swift'', which served with the
United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...
.


Other vessels


K class

In the mid-1990s Incat built three "K class" ferries. They are 70 to 80 metres long, low profile passenger vessels without wave piercing bows or the distinctive centre bow that characterise all other larger Incat ferries. Two were built by Incat in Hobart and a third was built by a Chinese partner. Plans for further Chinese built K class ferries did not eventuate and Hull NF08 remains the only Incat vessel not built in Hobart.


Oil rig tender

Most offshore oil rigs are exposed to rough open seas with crew transfers by helicopter and freight needs served by
platform supply vessel A platform supply vessel (PSV) is a ship specially designed to supply offshore oil platform, oil and gas platforms and other offshore installations. They typically range from in length and are distinguished by the large open deck area used to st ...
s. However
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
's offshore oil rigs are in the calmer waters of the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
, the world's largest lake, so crew transfers can be comfortably and more economically undertaken by water. Several fast catamarans have been built to transfer both crews and cargo for this market including Incat Hull 074 ''Muslim Magomayev'' delivered in 2015. The size of catamarans that can be built for this niche market is restricted by the 16.5-metre width of locks on the
Volga–Don Canal Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal (Russian language, Russian: Волго-Донской судоходный канал имени, ''В. И. Ленина, Volga-Donskoy sudokhodniy kanal imeni V. I. Lenina'', abbreviated ВДСК, ''VDSK'') is a ...
that connects the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.


Brooke Street Pier

From 1990 Incat had almost exclusively built large catamarans, but this changed in 2014 when the company diversified into something that was not even a ship, although it did float. An earlier Brooke Street Pier ferry terminal on Hobart's waterfront needed replacement and Incat was commissioned to build an 80 x 20-metre floating pontoon. Hull 077 was towed 8 km from Incat's shipyard to
Sullivans Cove Sullivans Cove is on the River Derwent adjacent to the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania. It was the site of initial European settlement in the area, and the location of the earlier components of the Port of Hobart. History The cove was the init ...
before finishing work was done on site. In addition to ferry berths, the pier hosts a restaurant, a cafe and a number of stalls.


Luxury super yachts

The market for opulent motor yachts has grown rapidly in the 21st century and while the market is mostly for monohull vessels, catamarans are beginning to make inroads. Incat has released several designs ranging from 80 to 112 metres which are shown on their website.


Deliveries

In its early years Incat built smaller boats and ferries with little to distinguish it from other boat yards except for a willingness to experiment and innovate. But the revolutionary Hull 023 completed in 1990 was quite different and was the first of the type of ferry that Incat is best known for today with its large capacity, high speed, wave piercing hulls and distinctive centre bow. As one of the first large aluminium vehicle carrying catamarans in the world, it contributed to the big changes in the ferry industry that occurred in the 1990s. In the "Length / class" field of the table WPC means the vessel is a wave piercing catamaran. The three K class vessels were a low profile design without the wave piercing bows and the capacity to carry fewer cars than traditional Incat designs. In the competitive ferry industry, ships often change operators, especially in Europe. Other ferries have alternated between summer service in the northern and southern hemispheres every six months. Some Incat vessels of the 1990s have been operated by up to six shipping companies with regular name changes.
Gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...
is a measure of a ship's enclosed volume rather than its weight or displacement, so similar ships can have differing gross tonnages due to factors such as whether a viewing platform is fully enclosed or open to the weather.


References


External links

*
Revolution Design, Incat's in house naval architects
{{Hobart landmarks Companies based in Hobart Shipbuilding companies of Australia Shipyards of Australia Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1977 1977 establishments in Australia