NW Yachting, (http://www.nwyachting.com),
Hedrick, Bruce, February 2009, p.
73
Sea Stories
Thain BoatWorks Launches
Ferry Project for Uganda
Thain Boatworks located in Everett, Washington,
just announced that they are taking on, an
ambitious project to build a series of passenger-only
ferries to run across Lake Victoria,
which is located in Central East
Africa and borders on Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. For years, ferries of various sorts linked the major cities that border Lake Victoria, which allowed a profitable trade to develop between these countries. With the end of the Cold War, dollars from the competing parties in the Cold War ceased to flow into Africa. Through neglect and mismanagement; the ferry system serving Lake Victoria and other waterways has all but collapsed.
The primary run is the one that used to go from Kampala, Uganda to Mwanza, Tanzania. By ferry this trip would take 10-15 hrs. The current trip by bus or truck takes 2-3 days over surfaces that can barely be called roads. Needless to say, the increased traffic
on what is left of these roads has simply served to accelerate the deterioration of these roads, making this, form of transportation more expensive and much more dangerous. So what will turn this disturbing trend around?
Enter
a company known as Earthwise Ventures
headquartered out of Seattle and Kampala, Uganda, and led by CEO Robert Smith,
who is the founding chairman of
Earthwise Ventures as well as the
founder and president of Thain Boatworks. Smith has partnered with Calvin Echodu, the CEO of the Uganda side of the Earthwise Ventures to develop a system to bring investment to Africa that will in turn start companies that will create both jobs and services that
will rebuild the basic infrastructure
needed to stimulate and provide
structure for a developing and
sustainable economy.
The first step in this ambitious project is to rebuild the ferry system of Lake Victoria.
The first 125-passenger ferry is now under construction at Thain Boatworks. Designed by Kurt Hughes of Seattle, this 65' catamaran should be completed sometime in early 2009. In
early December, Northwest
Yachting: Magazine was
able to get a tour through the project guided by the very
knowledgeable head of the Legal department
for Earthwise, Julia Youngs. The plan
now is to build the first two ferries
here. The first ferry won't even be
launched here. Instead, according to Albert van Rooyen project manager, it will simply be cut along predetermined lines into pieces designed to fit into a standard 40' container, which will then be
shipped to Kampala. There, the
catamaran will be reassembled and
launched in Lake Victoria.
That's
not the only cool part of this project.
These ferries will be powered by diesel engines designed to run on biodiesel supplied by Earthwise Biodiesel. This company will use what is essentially a weed that can grow with little water or other
maintenance known as jatropha. The seeds
from this plant are first placed in a machine where they are peeled. Following that they are cooked under extreme pressure which produces the oil. This supplies the ferry system with its primary source of oil as well as supplying the community with affordable and renewable fuel.
This
is one very interesting project that
will be extremely interesting to follow
as it progresses. For more information you can
contact Thain Boatworks at 360-474-1386 or go to www.earthwiseventures.com.
-
Bruce
Hedrick, NW Yachting