Students Compete in Ferry Design Competition

Student teams from six maritime universities and schools have submitted proposals for the Second Annual Design Competition for Safe Affordable Ferries sponsored by the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association.

A panel of five judges will review the submissions and will announce the winners by early Fall 2014.  The top prize is $5,000 with second and third prizes also to be awarded.  

The student teams were asked to submit a design for a ferry to transport up to 200 passengers and ro-ro cargo between Lae and Kavieng in Papua New Guinea (with several intermediate stops), a distance of 350 nautical miles.  The tragic sinking of a passenger ferry, MV Rabaul Queen, with a loss of 164+ lives and operating on this route has brought the attention of the IMO and the maritime world into providing a design for a safe and affordable passenger ferry.  Entries have been received from student teams in universities and schools in India, Canada (2 teams), France, Germany, and the US.  

“We began this design competition to respond to a major cause of ferry fatalities in the developing world, that is, inappropriate vessels in poor condition.  With the design competition we are trying to promote technology in the direction of extreme affordability and safety.  Recognizing that human error is another major cause of ferry fatalities, WFSA has commissioned student research in this arena as well.”

The winners of the first annual design competition for a Bangladesh River ferry were from University of British Columbia (first prize); and Tolani Maritime Institute (second prize). Istanbul Technical University, Turkey and University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany, were third prize awardees.