In the world of leisure travel, as minutes become precious and hours essential, a high-speed ferry service between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia seems to be an imminent necessity to 21st century vacationers. With cautious optimism, Bay Ferries plans to dip into this potentially lucrative market. While their CAT is an amazing aluminum catamaran – able to carry 900 passengers and 240 cars while piercing through the waves of the Gulf of Maine at 55 miles an hour thanks to light-as-a-beer-can construction and four, 10,000 horse-power engines – the company is not rushing to fill the void left by the departing SCOTIA PRINCE. Bay Ferries currently zips between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth twice daily, roundtrip, during July and August. Come shoulder season, service to Portland might be added to the schedule.
“If not this year, definitely next,” promises Mark MacDonald, president and CEO of Bay Ferries, a privately held company headquartered on Prince Edward Island. “Our theory is there’s a whole untapped demand in the Boston area market of people who want a high-speed ship but don’t want to drive to Bar Harbor.”
Bar Harbor, understandably, likes the current arrangement. “There is a word-of-mouth concern that Bay Ferries might reduce their number of runs into Bar Harbor,” admits Kevin DesVeaux, president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce.
“We remain very committed to Bar Harbor – the Mid Coast region and Acadia National Park are a unique and very large market,” says MacDonald. “You can run a very robust Bar Harbor schedule while also adding a number of trips each way between Portland and Yarmouth.”
During the last few years, Bay Ferries has seen an inexplicable ridership decline, so investing in a second catamaran to service Portland will not happen in the foreseeable future. Under serious consideration at Bay Ferries is the viability of a package trip whereby travelers and their cars would zip from Portland to Yarmouth in about four and a half hours (“buoy to buoy” is our phrase, says MacDonald), drive around Nova Scotia, then ferry across to Bar Harbor and drive down the coast of Maine. Four and a half hours from Portland to Yarmouth cuts the SCOTIA PRINCE’s 11-hour trip considerably. However, since the SCOTIA PRINCE suddenly discontinued service in this market last April, Bay Ferries isn’t prepared to rush to fill this void. Television commercials have already been produced; brochures touting service only to Bar Harbor were printed months ago.
“Our only issue with respect to the SCOTIA PRINCE cancellation is that it happened late in the game – we already re-booked about 300 of their motor coach crossings – and now we face the issue of disrupting plans that were already disrupted,” explains MacDonald.
Meanwhile, the City of Portland has just poured $1 million into the International Marine Terminal, remediating away mold, building a new warehouse and renovating interior space. Cancellation of Scotia Prince service this summer represents a minimum loss to the city of $450,000 in rent and fees, according to Larry Mead, assistant city manager. On a rainy Sunday afternoon in May, the only people in the facility were employees of V.I.P Tour and Charter Bus Company – having fully redecorated one room with the weary bus driver in mind, complete with sofa, recliner and marble-top counters convenient for paperwork processing, they also hope to profit by offering parking spaces for $5/car, $20/bus load).
In the off season and absent the SCOTIA PRINCE, the International Marine Terminal might be aptly described as ghostly. A zippy, high-speed ferry promising all-day meals, a bar, duty-free gift shop with 71 slot machines for gamblers and a large-screen TV in the lounge showing children’s movies requires a little imagination.
“We have nowhere to go but up,” smiles Ray Penfold, V.I.P.’s general manager. “And we’re looking forward to selling tickets for the CAT.”