EFINOR ALLAIS builds a passenger ship dedicated to tourism

To replace the aging amphibious vessel that links Tatihou Island to Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, our shipyard Efinor Allais launched the construction of the Tatihou III on April 7, 2022 (cutting of the first sheet).

It is undoubtedly one of the busiest maritime lines in the Manche department. Except in times of health crisis, more than 60,000 passengers use it every year from Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue to go to the Tatihou Island. The originality of this line is that, at low tide, it requires a rolling machine and at high tide, a boat. The solution is therefore amphibious.

At the beginning of 2021, the departmental council launched a call for tenders for a new amphibious vessel, which would increase the transport capacity to Tatihou Island, provide a more comfortable vessel for passengers and make it easier to manage rotations during maintenance phases.

This new passenger ship will be 15 m long and 4.80 m wide, with a capacity of 64 passengers, including one with reduced mobility. The hull and superstructure will be made of aluminum. It will have a propulsion power of two times 118 kW. The sailing speed will be 8 knots, and the cruising speed will be 13 km/h.

"This new unit has been designed to optimize the vessel's weight. Indeed, the constraints of rolling and navigation require a ship as light as possible in order to absorb more effectively the impacts during the rolling phases, in particular through the use of low-pressure tires, and also to reduce fuel consumption during the navigation phases," explains Gwénolé Bosseur, naval architect.

Passenger comfort

Another area of improvement concerned the acoustic comfort of passengers, thanks in particular to the use of soundproofing materials. These processes are perfectly mastered by our teams, as they have already been used for many years for crew boats, but this time, the shipyard called on the services of an acoustician during the design phase to identify the best compromises.

The delivery and commissioning of the Tatihou III are scheduled for mid-October 2022.

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