A consortium lead by Morison Muscat with The Maritime Group (TMG) and Beckett Rankine has been appointed by the Sultanate of Oman’s National Ferries Company (NFC) to carry out a High Speed ferry feasibility study and masterplan for the development of new coastal routes and ferry ports in Oman.
NFC already operate two high speed Austal 65m Ro-Pax catamarans Shinas and Hormuz and are now supplementing their fleet with three Rodriguez 52m wavepiercing catamarans for the extended service. The ports where Beckett Rankine are designing facilities for the ferries are Sultan Qaboos Port at Muscat, Sur New Port and Hilf on Masirah Island. In the photo below Tim Beckett can be seen inspecting Sultan Qaboos Port with Captain Alex Wilson and Captain Malcolm Parrott, both from TMG. The team’s stay in Oman was somewhat longer than planned due to the volcanic ash cloud emitted by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull grounding all Europe’s flights.
