rapid change of plan means that the Island's  new ferry, in the shape of a high-speed catamaran, will be arriving in Pireaus early this month for a winter maintenance overhaul and re-paint, and so will definitely be in service at the start of next season.

Instead of the  craft originally intended for the job, which had been  ordered through an Australian shipyard, the new boat is Norwegian-built, and has been working the Gulf of Finland channel trip between Helsinki and the Estonian port of Tallinin.

Symi I Captain Philemonas Manoleskos and a  representative of the ANES company travelled to Estonia last month and, after checking out the boat, left with it for Greece on the 18th of October. Travelling for between ten and twelve hours a day, and given good weather  it was due to arrive in Pireaus some three weeks later.

The aluminium--built catamaran has a 300-passenger carrying capacity with a cruising

speed of 25 knots. It is just over 38 metres in length,  with a beam of almost nine and a half metres.

A GOOD BUY

The cost of the new boat was $725,000 US, and says ANES vice-president Dimitris Chrisochoos
'It's a lot of money to spend, so we  have been checking it out very thoroughly, and we 're convinced that we have a good buy.'

Why the switch from the previously-promised Australian-built boat? Says Dimitris, 'We had had high hopes of our agreement with the Australians, but as time went on we were finding that they  were falling too far behind in terms of the contract, so we had to cancel and take our money back.'

The catamaran will slot into next year's ANES and ANES high-speed programmes, and although its exact schedules are yet to be worked out, says Dimitris, 'It will definitely mean more trips between Rhodes and Symi  next season.'

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