Incat's Boyer expansion dead

A proposal by Tasmanian company Incat to build electric passenger ferries at Boyer in the Derwent Valley has been halted by a changing environment, both locally and in the world market where it wants to sell its product.    

“Boyer … looks like it is not going to happen,” Incat Chairman Bob Clifford said.

“The other sites are equally as good for us and we’re finalising, I hope, one of those sites now. We’re just waiting our chance to get hold of the best one we can.”

The shipbuilding proposal, under which Incat was to purchase a 12-ha site, part of the Boyer’s holding of 565 hectares beside the Derwent, was announced in August last year. 

However, a contract for that sale was not completed.

At the time, chairman Bob Clifford told the Gazette that Incat was undertaking a lengthy search process for a site that would act, essentially, as an extension of its facility at Derwent Park.

The object was to more than double its existing 70,000 sq. metres of factory floor. The ideal space, he indicated, would be Derwent waterside, and house hull fabrication before internal fit-out at the existing Derwent Park site. (The massive size of the ferries, 100 metres-plus in length, and the huge sections of which they’re composed, require water as part of the ‘production line.’)

The 12-hectare Boyer property, about 35 kilometres from Derwent Park via the River Derwent, was one of four potential sites named by Mr Clifford. Several were closer than Boyer; the company has also looked at waterside land on the Tamar as part of the process.    

It has now emerged that separate, long-term discussions about the future of the Boyer paper-making plant have come to a conclusion. Property entrepreneur David Marriner has committed to buy the Boyer site from Norske Skog, of Norway, at a cost of $27 million.

Mr Marriner, owner of multiple theatres in Melbourne, industrial and agricultural properties in Tasmania – along with the former Kensington Park racetrack in New Norfolk – has made it clear he wants the Boyer plant to continue producing paper. 

However, shipbuilding is not in his plans, says Incat.

Several sections of Boyer’s large land-holding have already been hived off for other industrial enterprises. A contract between David Marriner and Norskse Skog is to be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2025, a little more than a month away.

At the same time, Incat has been actively pursuing world ferry-building prospects. 

Clifford himself has been talking directly with port authorities and governments, shipping service and logistics companies about the challenges ahead for the electric ferry model.

He’s told the Gazette that Incat is highly optimistic about the market for battery-powered aluminium-hulled ferries, a view shared by Incat CEO Stephen Casey.

At the time of the Boyer announcement, Mr Casey said “Incat’s goal over the next 5-10 years is to produce multiple electric ships for the global market while expanding our workforce. The new production facility is vital for us to achieve that.”

The chairman has also told the Gazette of his concerns about capacity of ports -- such as those on either side of the busy English Channel route -- for charging systems needed for new ferries.   

At over 40 megawatt hours (MWh), the battery power pack of the electric ferry currently under construction at Incat  is four times larger than those in maritime use anywhere in the world. 

The charging capacity at Dover, Mr Clifford estimates, is currently only a fraction of what will be required to ‘fuel’ the ferries of the future.