There will be no direct, passenger-only ferry service between Victoria’s Inner Harbour and Vancouver this summer after Victoria Clipper said it is putting its plans on hold until the spring of 2017.
Clipper chief executive Merideth Tall said Tuesday the service will start when they can get it right, which means getting the right vessel for the job.
“I thought we had exactly the right vessel, but when we looked into it more closely it didn’t do it,” said Tall in an interview from Clipper’s home base of Seattle. “It is all about the vessel as far as I’m concerned. We’ve been looking at this route for years, but it has to be the perfect vessel or it’s not going to work.”
Tall said she is comfortable saying they will be ready for the service next spring, though she would not go into detail on where they are looking for another vessel. “I don’t want to telegraph too many of my moves,” she said.
Clipper, which runs a high-speed passenger-only service between Victoria and Seattle, is the second ferry company to postpone plans for the direct Victoria-to-Vancouver service.
Earlier this month, Riverside Marine, which intended to start a passenger ferry between the Inner Harbour and Coal Harbour in Vancouver in July, announced its vessel would not likely be ready for service this year.
Brisbane, Australia-based Riverside said a complete refit of its vessel, berthed at the Wharf Street marina, is expected to take five or six months and that work will not start until late May at the earliest.
Nick Cheong, Riverside’s vice-president of operations for the Victoria-to-Vancouver service, said transporting the vessel from Quebec took longer than expected and they are not sure when it will be ready for service.
That means the only passenger service this year that will leave from Victoria’s Inner Harbour for Vancouver will be operated by Prince of Whales.
The whale watching outfit has been offering a six-hour tour that takes customers from the Inner Harbour to Vancouver's Coal Harbour.
Tall said Riverside’s delay did take pressure off Clipper to get into the water with the service this year. She said Clipper is committed to “getting this new service right, and a critical factor is choosing the right vessel that meets all our standards for service.
“With the wrong vessel, we know that the Salish Sea between Victoria and Vancouver can present a challenge to customer comfort. The right vessel will meet or exceed our travelers’ expectations by providing the best onboard customer experience. We are not willing to compromise Clipper quality standards or excellence.”
