Continent’s Fastest Car Ferry Gives Some Boaters a Sinking Feeling

A jet-propelled ferry that can dart across the Gulf of Maine at more than 50 mph will get tourists and their cars to Nova Scotia and back in a hurry. But it’s so fast that some people fear whales and lobster boats could get run down.

The 300-foot catamaran, which makes its maiden trip from Bar Harbor to the Nova Scotia port of Yarmouth today, is the fastest car ferry on the continent.

The Australian-built boat replaces a conventionally powered ferry, reducing the six-hour trip to 2 1/2 hours.

“You don’t realize how fast you’re going until you slow down,” said Yvette Despres of St. Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia, who made the initial voyage from her home province to Maine on Wednesday on the $44-million vessel.

Even fully laden with 240 cars, four buses and 900 people, the ferry is capable of 50 mph. With a lighter load, it can whisk along at 58 mph as its four pumps shoot out enough water to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools each second.

Bar Harbor lobsterman Jon Carter said he is concerned about the safety of his fellow fishermen and other boaters when the catamaran cuts its way through a thick Down East fog.

Environmentalists say radar does not pick up whales and collisions are inevitable. Endangered right whales cross the ferry’s route.