Seaconn: Flying Boats

GRAPHICS PLUS

Typical 35-40 knot 350 passenger high-speed ferries usually cost $9MM or less to build. SeaConn's vessels cost $33MM each; the cost of going very fast very safely. Operational costs and maintenance are proportionately high. Less expensive solutions won't breach the time wall on trips up and down the I-95 corridor.

Two examples of the cost of that support:

No gearboxes exist in the world that will combine each vessel's six gas turbines into three closely spaced output shafts. These have to be custom made in Switzerland and completed in the U.S. at a cost approaching $1MM per vessel.
Current radar sets are designed for the existing slower commercial fleet. SeaConn's radars are custom developed with the manufacturer to support our higher speeds.

This extends to almost every aspect of the SeaConn project down to the windows (SeaConn's cruise speeds create winds in excess of a Category-One hurricane), seats and how we serve coffee.

With our background in environmentally oriented transportation projects SeaConn was developed as a 'green' project:

The NOx emissions from our gas turbine (jet) engines are 1/100th of equivalent diesel powered vessels.
Although jet-engine powered, SeaConn vessels cannot be heard passing 250 yards offshore above the sound of leaves rustling.
Extensive tank testing shows that we will be the lowest wake/wash fast boats yet launched in the U.S. especially in and around harbors.

The fastest passenger vessels in the world also have to be the safest.

No crew training exists for boats of our speed yet the USCG has to license our crews and vessels and be assured that passengers, crews and vessels are safe. As part of that extensive effort we're building the first privately owned, multi-million-dollar, full-motion simulator of the type airlines use to train their crews. Most major airlines do not have their own simulator.

That is only the first step. SeaConn will have its own BRM (Bridge Resource Management) school, a variant of the CRM (Crew Resource Management) training used for airline crews. Retraining, constant testing and recertification of crew members will be required to continue operating SeaConn vessels.

Most of the qualified aluminum shipyards we've been working with are currently committed to military orders for Homeland Defense. Few U.S. yards are large enough to build three highly advanced 214-foot (66m) aluminum ships for at-the-same-time delivery. The yard we ultimately select may not be able to start construction on our schedule due to government projects already in the pipeline.

Shipyards with full order books also bid and schedule work differently than hungry yards. Staggered deliveries, the shipyard preferred plan for multi-ship orders, doesn't work for the SeaConn business model. The initial boat schedule requires starting with three vessels so that headways (time between trips) are shorter and offer you more departures during critical periods.

This will have an effect on vessel delivery times and our start-up date.

To put the financial effort into perspective the cost to build SeaConn's first three vessels exceeds the market value of all domestic ferries, large car ferries and small high-speed passenger combined, in the northeast United States from New York to Maine.

Speed, and safety at very high-speeds, comes at great cost. The vessels and the advanced ship technology required to fulfill our mission is only 1/3 of the challenge. The marketing and sales to support the vessels is another third. The last piece is the IT required to support marketing, sales and the vessels themselves. Although the boats are not yet built the planning, support and development of the other 2/3's is largely completed.

Since the beginning the website has remained very simple. As we begin vessel construction the site will grow to include:

Vessel tours and seat selection
Food service information and menus
Ports and supporting services at the Connecticut and Long Island terminals
Technical information on the vessels
Automatic mobile-phone, website, fax and pager notification of sailing information
Customer service
Purchase and reloading of SeaConn's contact-less (no-swipe) smart cards for fare payment, food and ancillary sales & services
E and personal concierge service allowing reservations and purchase of services often as a one-fare bundled discount price
Coordinated air, hotel, car, limo, taxi, inter-ferry service links
Subscribing corporate and government clients can reserve groups of seats or private office rooms for enroute meetings between regional offices and pre/post client conferences
Security information and how security will influence riders and boarding procedures
Bios of our chefs
Pre-ordering gourmet dining from full course meals on longer legs
Shorter trips will have gourmet coffee, fine light meals and desserts served at your seat or in conference - plastic bags of snacks will not be served
Airport terminal expediting baggage and security procedures for LaGuardia
Parking facilities information and security coordinated with the smart cards (locked door & windows-up entry into secured parking areas)
Airline flight status and a great deal more...

Construction drawings and real-time vessel positions en-route will not be shown on the website for security reasons.

Staffing to answer the roughly one-thousand inquires we receive each week by email and phone will not be in place until construction begins. In the meantime the website will be the best source for updates. We plan to be more timely in reporting progress as we go forward.

Fares: The second most asked question. We, of course, have target rates that form the backbone of our business model. It would be misleading to announce fares nearly two years in advance of knowing how volitile fuel, labor and shipbuilding costs will shake out by launch time. We're pleased that, so far, our originally planned fares are still on the mark except for fuel adjustments and we expect those to hold with only normal inflationary adjustment.

The site will be updated more often as we get closer and when we have answers to your questions that we believe can be relied upon within reason.

Whether you are bearing the delays gracefully or in rank frustration thank you for your continued interest. The delays are as frustrating for us, who have a great deal invested in this, as they are for you who have to suffer travel in the Greatest City and the continuing promises from those offering solutions.

Design:

At 214' (66m) our vessels are over 2/3's of a football field in length and were designed not to look like ferries. After the brilliant marine design team at NGA in the U.K. figured out how to make the boats both fast and exceptionally seaworthy we engaged an award winning mega-yacht designer to shape the outside as a 214 foot yacht and the inside as a comfortable marine limousine with several levels of accommodations.

The lowest class travel on SeaConn is Business Class on the Main Deck. All individual reclining chairs. No shared armrests.

On the Club Deck, one deck up, the arrangement is like a private club lounge.