Old Boat Goat wrote:

This thread put three frames me in mind of the "FastCats" built for B.C.
Ferries here in British Columbia, back in the '90s. Not the tonnage but

Three were built and one, or maybe two, were put into service but the heavy
wake and noise forced them to reduce speeds to 20 knots, more or less what
the conventional ferries were making, and decreasing hull efficiency,
increasing fuel and maintenance costs, but carrying fewer vehicles and
passengers. $400 mil in the making, sold on the auctioneers block for a mere
$13 million. For all three. To the builders.

Do not be fooled by initial and short-term trends and ventures. Every
pivotal commercial vessel development has had a difficult pioneering
phase involving acceptance, a lot of sorting out, and other things.
This is the rule, not the exception, and someone has to be brave enough
to take the early risks and lose them. It has been this way for
centuries. Every time, the public and pundits said: "Yep, that was a
nice try but we aren't gonna see any more of them."