Glosten to update FERRIES 2021 attendees on foil ferry progress

Written by Nick Blenkey
Foil assisted ferry

Senator Murray says she looks forward to day she can ride Glosten/Bieker Foil Ferry project got major attention at

Marine Log‘s FERRIES 2021 conference is scheduled to kickoff two months from today for the first in-person ferry event in over 18 months.

The event will take place November 9-10 on the New York Harbor waterfront in Jersey City, N.J., in partnership with the Passenger Vessel Association. As its theme says, “The ferry industry is poised to rebound in 2022.”

This year, the program includes a presentation on by Matthew Lankowski, senior ocean engineer at Seattle based naval architectural and marine engineering consultancy Glosten, on an innovative foil-assisted fast ferry design, first announced in January 2019, that is now a lot closer to moving from concept renderings to on-the-water reality.

The design is the creation of Glosten and another Seattle company, performance marine craft designer Bieker Boats.

A consortium of Washington State players has now gotten behind the project and launched a Joint Innovation Project (JIP) to speed things along.

The public-private partnership includes three ports that have joined forces to support the effort: Port of Anacortes, Port of Bellingham, and Port of Skagit.

Operator Kitsap Transit has identified a potential route for the vessel in its ferry operations and sponsored the team in applying for additional funding to advance the concept.

Leading the collaborative effort are Washington Maritime Blue, an initiative set up in 2017 by Gov. Jay Inslee, and class society DNV GL. Project partners also include Skagit County and EDASC (Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County).

Matthew Lankowski head shoy
Matthew Lankowski

At last year’s FERRIES conference, DNV’s Jennifer States presented on public-private partnerships, including the Washington Maritime Blue Foil Ferry JIP, followed by a technical presentation of the concept design by Glosten’s Will Moon. This year, Glosten will Glosten will showcase progress from its next significant effort: execution of its $600,000 funded FTA AIM grant. This includes route selection, preliminary design, capital and lifecycle cost estimates, and environmental analysis, culminating in a replicable business model for zero-emission, fast hydrofoiling ferry service.

Meet Matthew Lankowski

Lankowski has over 13 years of commercial naval architecture, ocean engineering, and maritime consulting experience. Since joining Glosten, he has led and contributed to a variety of technical, research, and business-oriented projects in the Ocean Engineering & Analysis group, in areas including project and contract management, transportation system analysis, risk assessment, climatology, seakeeping, and loads analysis. He is currently serving as program manager for the development of the Glosten/Bieker Foil Ferry.

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