97 Goodbye to the old ferry in 2009 The new ferry arriving.
when we started drawing up plans of what it should look like, and I had so many photos of the whole process - I felt it would interest many people if I produced a book.” He says it all started in 2006 when they had a regular inspec- tion: “The Maritime and Coastguard Agency inspector said he couldn’t sign us off for another five years because the hull needed replacing. To be fair it was built in 1960 so it was pretty old. A new hull was a massive job, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, so the boss- es looked into the finances and announced it was time to buy a brand new ferry.” The £4m contract was awarded to Pendennis, the
Falmouth super yacht builder and the people behind the King Harry Ferry at St Mawes. There was much excitement at the time with Dartmouth residents looking forward to a bigger, faster ferry able to take twice as many cars (36) and double decker buses. “Our team visited the King Harry ferry and decided we didn’t want a noisy chain system - it wouldn’t go down well with local residents. A member of the team went to Nova Scotia in Canada to research other ferries and came back with a great design based on a bull wheel drive system with wires and an overhead driving bridge.” The actual hull was built in Holland (Kerry, with the team, visited a couple of times to check on its progress). It was then towed back to England on a barge enduring a rough Channel crossing! The crew at Penden- nis then spent nearly six months fitting it out. “I remember the last crossing on the old ferry. It was quite emotional,” Kerry says thoughtfully. “It was 8.30pm on Sunday the 7th
of June 2009. 150 local people came to say goodbye.
We handed out prosecco and all raised a glass to her.” Over 300 people lined up along the embankment to watch the new one arrive later that month. Kerry says he looks back fondly on his time on the ferry,
he enjoyed meeting new people everyday and finding out where they were going. “We had some great times, the boys were all super characters. I’ll never forget when one of the lifeboats came loose, so one night I leaned over to tie it back on. Instead of grabbing the rope I pulled the inflate cord! It went up like a massive air bag. The skipper looked round and did a proper double take when he saw we were towing a 60 man life raft behind us!” But Kerry says he won’t miss the prolific queue jumpers. “Some don’t know the system and really do just pull in when they
see the first few cars boarding not realising there are about 20 queued up behind them, but there were always people who tried their luck. If we caught them quick enough we’d make them join the back of the queue.” It took Kerry, who’s Dartmouth born and bred, about six
months to write the book at home on his laptop on the dining room table. He says if he were to review it himself he would say: “A great read, not just for historians but also for locals who may use the ferry everyday, but not know anything about its past.” So is there another book brewing from Kerry from the Ferry? “No, that’s your lot! The ferry is all I know about and I’ve put it all in the one book!” If you want to pick up a copy, it costs £6 and is available to buy at various locations around the town including the Dart Marina Hotel, the museum, visitor centre, Community Bookshop, Flavel and Gifts For Gentlemen.
Frequently asked questions:
Has anyone fallen in? No, not to my knowledge! Has a baby ever been born on the ferry: “No, but we’ve had plenty of pregnant ladies rushing to hospital.” If one was, would he or she get free crossings for life? (Laughs) “I doubt it!”
What happens if an ambulance comes? “For a standard blue flashing light, we can load them and the rest of the cars as long as the ambulance gets off first. The ambulance crew will quickly tell us if the emergency requires us to leave the slip immediately. If that’s the case, they board and we just go, all cars have to wait What if someone doesn’t have cash? “In the old days we would reverse them off. Now it’s more about a fast effective service so there’s no time for that. We give them a payment slip for next time. Two people gave me their driving licences to hold as ransom – they never collected them!” Has it ever crashed? On a memorable Sunday morning in February 2005 very strong winds and a fast running tide caused the wires to become disconnected from their fastenings, leaving the ferry to drift a couple of hundred yards down the river on the Kingswear side with 15 cars aboard. The crew secured the vessel to buoys and passengers were taken ashore to the Dart Marina Hotel for a cup of strong tea and biscuits.
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