BC FerriesIsland Class vessel built and delivered to Vancouver Island in 2021

Four new Island Class vessels will be joining the BC Ferries fleet sometime in the future.

BC Ferries announced today that the contract to build the vessels has been awarded to Damen Shipyards Group, based in the Netherlands. 

Damen, the same shipyard that built BC Ferries’ previous six Island Class ferries, will build the vessels in Romania.

Its bid was selected from among several proposals received from around the world. 

BC Ferries said no Canadian companies submitted a bid. 

The four new vessels will enter service by 2027 on routes connecting Nanaimo Harbour and Gabriola Island and Campbell River and Quadra Island.

“The new hybrid electric vessels will further standardize our fleet, both increasing capacity and improving our flexibility to move ships across routes so our passengers can have confidence that we’ll get them where they need to go,” said Nicolas Jimenez, BC Ferries President and CEO. 

“Adding more Island Class vessels will also make it easier to deploy crew, create efficiencies in training costs, and promote safe, reliable and environmentally conscious ferry services up and down the coast.”

BC Ferries added that the agreement with the shipyard is a design-build, fixed-priced contract that provides them with substantial guarantees related to delivery dates, performance criteria, cost certainty and quality construction.

“We are super excited and extremely pleased with the award of four more Island Class type vessels for BC Ferries,” said Leo Postma, Damen’s Area Director Americas. “We have teamed up with the technical staff of BC Ferries now for seven years and together we developed a very efficient series of 10 ferries in total that meet all of the future requirements of safe, reliable and sustainable waterborne public transport.”

The new ships will carry at least 47 vehicles and up to 390 passengers and crew. And, they will have a number of features that support BC Ferries’ environment goals. The company plans to operate these new vessels exclusively in battery-electric mode, using renewable BC Hydro electricity.

Through a separate contract, BC Ferries will also initiate corresponding electrical upgrades for shore-based rapid charging at the four terminals on these routes, in time for ship delivery.