Pattaya-Hua Hin High Speed Ferry--Interest in this Idea??

[Riptide]

Hello All,

I've made the trip a few times BKK-HH & once made the trip over there from Pattaya and then back the next day. What a haul!!!

Anyhow, I have a friend in the boatbuilding business in Pattaya, and he's recently designed a new type of boat that would make the water crossing from Pattaya to Hua Hin and vice versa in 2 1/2 -3 hrs.

Now, before you develop images of a bone jarring, tooth rattling, loud, wet and miserable speedboat ride, let me explain.

This design concept is pretty new for Thailand.

It's a trimaran (one main center hull with 2 outriggers). The passengers would ride in it much like they would in a bus or airplane, except they would enter from the top down a set of stairs (like exiting a large tour bus).

The roof would be tinted plexiglass. Theoretically, it would be powered by a 300hp diesel with mucho sound proofing in place and seat 36 passengers.

The small prototype of this is currently performing its tests quite well.

The trimaran design adds tremendous stability and comfort. It is also constructed quite a bit "over-long" and has a very narrow, very pointed portion forward of the passenger compartment, which adds to stability on the forward/up & down axis. It doesn't slam from wave to wave like a typical speedboat.

My friend has dubbed it the "Wave Piercer" design.

He's looking for some capital as well as management to help him with this potential Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry route, and that's where I come in.

Is this something that would garner a lot of interest for you good folks in HH?

Cheers!
Ken Stone

[malcolminthemiddle]

We’ve talked about this topic before, see here:

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/vi ... sc&start=0

As a part of your feasibility, I suggest that you find out why the service previously failed.

I for one could be an interested party, subject to feasibility.

[JW]

I think that there has always been interest here, but no one has had the funds to do it properly and at a reasonable price. It would take time like any business to grow and become profitable. From a golfers point of view it would be great to be able to leave early one morning play somewhere in Paatya, have a night out, another game then travel back. Or just ignore the golf and enjoy the crazy town for a few days! Good luck with it and keep everyone posted.

[Michael]

Does not run in the past and hua hin needs not day tourists from
pattaya.

[kevars]

beware what you wish for ! it might come to haunt you !

[/u]

[Riptide]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

From what I understand & have been told, boat design & passenger comfort were the 2 biggest killers on this idea in the past.

OK, anybody can make a trawler (displacement) boat, that can make the trip comfortably and affordably---but will take 8 hours and can handle rough seas if need be.

Anybody can (maybe) make the trip in a conventional speedboat. It's only 60 nautical miles or so.

Thing is, a 200 HP gasoline outboard burns 1 liter per minute/ 15 gallons per hour, and (while it looks nice from a distance), is quite miserable to ride in for more than 15-20 minutes, plus it would need 2 each 200 hp outboards (30 gallons/120 liters per hour) to maintain a 25 knot cruising speed with 35 passengers.

We're talking a 40 foot speedboat. I've been on them in Pattaya and they are crowded, wet, loud & miserable.

Yeah, they work for the Chinese group tours that want to go out to Ko Larn for half a day, but that's not my potential market.

Fuel costs on this trimaran would be less than half that of a speedboat, BUT, I think the real incentive would be a smooth(er) air conditioned, not overloaded (36 seats=36 tickets), professionaly managed ride with snacks & drinks being served by a couple of stewardesses just as if you were on a BKK Air flight from BKK to Samui or Phuket.


I'm convinced this has potential, and my friend keeps telling me that this design rides quite smoothlt as compared to a conventional speedboat.

Shielded from all spray with an airline type experience--barf bags et al.

800 baht each way??

My friend & I have tons more research to do on this, but I really appreciate the feedback so far!!

Thanks!
Ken---- aka Riptide

[malcolminthemiddle]

How many boats do you think you will need.

I would suggest a minimum of 3, two working back and forwards and one on stand by.

[spencer]

Just wondering the lenght and beam of the tri. I've done Hua Hin - Pattaya in sailboats big and small, small outboards up to a 76 foot motor yacht and a 46 foot off shore race boat. Most likely 30 or so times in the 5 years I lived there. The gulf is shallow throwing up some nice chop( not waves ). You might want to do the trip a few times before investing anything. Or better yet look to the Lake Erie in the US and see how many ferry's are making a buck on the short 60 mile crossing.
Just my 2 cents.

[Riptide]

Malcom,

Potentially 4 boats with 2 based in Pattaya & 2 in HH, but that decision is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road. YES, a spare boat would always be handy!!

No marina in HH, so not sure how well daily maintenance could be performed there.

Could keep the Pattaya boat(s) in a marina and arrange maintenance in evenings no problem there.

Spencer,

My friend is in the process of enclosing the top of the prototype, and will do about 10 days of sea trials PTT-HH-PTT with it soon. He's been puttering around with it and working on the outrigger design so far.

The prototype is 11 meters long with a 4.4 meter beam overall, and can seat 10-12 passengers.

The 36 passenger boat would be 25 meters/82 feet long with an 8-10 meter beam overall.

We'll see......

[Dougal]

There are plenty of designs already in existence that can do that sort of journey in the same time, hydrofoils and so forth. There is a marina at Pranburi a few miles south of HH which is currently very under utilised. but I would have thought that the biggest block to a high speed ferry service is the amount of fishing gear that would be encountered on the trip.

[dr dave soul monsta]

he biggest block to a high speed ferry service is the amount of fishing gear that would be encountered on the trip.

why would there be fishing gear on a strictly high speed passenger ferry /boat ?

possibly the odd set of golf clubs i should imagine, where would be the point of dragging along fishing equipment from A to B when the majority of fishing excursions such as Mermaid Cruise's provide all this equipment as part of the fee

if you mean the hundreds of Thai fisheries boats they only fish during the night so they wouldnt be a problem and im sure the craft would be fitted with radar and the crew would know where the nets and obsticles lurk..

[dr dave soul monsta]

No marina in HH, so not sure how well daily maintenance could be performed there.

not in hua hin its self but there are slight down from Hua Hin a suggestion would be to contact Barry at the above mentioned company in my last post
im sure he may well be able to accomadate or point in the right direction

[Rider]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

From what I understand & have been told, boat design & passenger comfort were the 2 biggest killers on this idea in the past.


I'm convinced this has potential, and my friend keeps telling me that this design rides quite smoothlt as compared to a conventional speedboat.

Shielded from all spray with an airline type experience--barf bags et al.

800 baht each way??

My friend & I have tons more research to do on this, but I really appreciate the feedback so far!!

Thanks!
Ken---- aka Riptide

A professional ferry service that's a good one to take inspiration from is the Lomprayah Catamaran that runs between Chumpon, Koh Tao and Koh Samui. The ferry service was started about three and a half years ago and is still going strong now (apart from low season).

The ferrys (x3) were built in Australia at a cost of approx 5 million a piece.
Now the design you've just described is is similar to the lomprayah catamaran, albeit theirs is a larger, and nowhere near as streamlined. This outfit get tons of tourists flowing into there vessels to get to and from the islands.
The same (on a lesser scale) is possible from HH to PTY but difficult.

The advantages you have in favour are that (should you achieve lift-off!) it will be a niche market (so hassle from rivals will be minimal, handier than traveling via bangers in bus/minibus and faster!

Now the only problems you are facing you (apart from getting the damned thing built) is the shortage of customers and the low-season that hua-hin suffers from (which nobody seems to of noticed so far).
The cops may try 'dipping their fingers in' so to speak but thats only speculation.

Good luck rip-tide!

As copy clerk in Jerry Mcguire said 'That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there!

[Riptide]

Thanks again Guys. Most all of what you've said so far does tend to bring a few other questions to my mind.

Rider, I tried to take that Lomprayah Catamaran last January ('05) from Samui to Phangan.

Their "catamaran" (at least the one I rode in that day), turned out to be a souped up monohull that beat my teeth out and splashed water all over everybody. It was very much like the one that capsized about 5 days later and killed several people.

Not saying it was the same one, nor that there is no catamaran like the one so brilliantly displayed in the flyer at my Samui hotel, BUT, I'd hardly call it professional service (from that single experience) to advertise one thing then summarily provide the customers with another completely miserable service with no attempt at an explanation.

[JW]

I have used the Lomprayah/cat thing to get to Koh Tao a few times and found it ok, nice to sit out on the front and have the water flying around a bit! Not a boat person so i dont know how rough is normal but both times i went it was pretty up and downy! Not so great with a hangover. As a golfer a fast service to pattaya would be popular if the price and time taken to get there are fair, it is a pain taking a taxi from here to Pattaya cause you dont know how long its gonna take. Good luck with it.