Ferries

The last post concerned a large floating care home, built in St. Nazaire in France, our own once proud ship building industry no longer being good for that sort of thing. Then today I find (from a handsome plaque on a bulkhead) that it is no good for Solent ferries either, with the catamaran which carried us from Ryde to Portsmouth this morning having been built for Wightlink by FBMA Marine in Cebu in the Phillippines.

A company which appears to have had links with Babcock of reference 1 but which has now been taken over by the Austal of reference 2.

First thought was that it was a very long way to move a ferry, which would presumably not make the passage under its own steam. Second thought was that there must be a huge market for ferries around the many islands off south east Asia, so putting a ferry builder in Cebu makes sense after all.

I failed to find out what FBMA stands for, but I did learn that the company: '...[was originally] an amalgamation of shipbuilding companies on the Isle of Wight, England with history back to 1899...'. Did they move out for the cheap labour or to be near a big market? Presumably they did have a long-standing relationship with Wightlink, a relationship which survived the move.

Reference 1: https://www.babcockinternational.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.austal.com/.

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