HSC ''FastCat Shanklin'' is a high speed

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

ferry which operated between the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

and mainland

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. She operated on the

Wightlink Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south of England. It operates Roll-on/roll-off, car ferries between Lymington and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Yarmouth, and Portsmouth a ...

Ryde Pier Ryde Pier is an early 19th century pier serving the town of Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. It is the world's oldest seaside pleasure pier. Ryde Pier Head railway station is at the sea end of the pier, and Ryde E ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

route from 2000 to 2009 along with her sister ship HSC ''FastCat Ryde''. Prior to working for Wightlink, the ship worked in Singapore and was named ''Water Jet 2''. In 1999, the year before it was sold to Wightlink, its name was changed to ''Supercat 18''. From early autumn 2009, Wightlink took delivery of two new vessels to operate the route, ''Wight Ryder I'' and ''Wight Ryder II''. Both the ''FastCat Shanklin'' and ''FastCat Ryde'' were retained by Wightlink until 2010, due to teething problems which occurred with the new vessels. They were then sold on to new owners Severn Link. In January 2010, the ''FastCat Shanklin'' was re-painted into a new livery for use with Severn Link travelling between

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay towar ...

and

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

as part of a new catamaran service with a shorter travel time of 50 minutes. The re-paint occurred in Portsmouth Harbour and shortly afterwards the ferry departed for Swansea. On 29 January 2010 the ship arrived in the Bristol Channel and visited Ilfracombe before heading to Swansea Docks. After arriving there it received an interior refurbishment. However the proposed ferry service failed to start as stated by Severn Link at Easter 2010. By August 2010 the planned ferry service had been postponed indefinitely and ''FastCat Shanklin'' was put up for sale along with her sister ship ''Rapparee'' (formerly ''FastCat Ryde''). On 3 August she moved from Swansea to Hythe, Hampshire. In May 2011, having been sold to Alien Shipping, a Russian company, the two craft were transported to the Black Sea on board the ''Beluga Fantasy''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FastCat Shanklin Ferries of England Ferry transport on the Isle of Wight 1996 ships Individual catamarans