EYE Marine Consultants’ latest, Roll on Roll off, car ferry design was delivered and accepted by Nova Scotia Department of Transportation on Jan 14th, 2004. The “Petit Princess” was built at Halifax Shipyard and is a sister ship of the “Deer Island Princess”. The ferry is slated to replace the Joshua Slocum, also an EYE Marine design, in the Digby Neck Nova Scotia Ferry Service. It will run across Petit Passage, which is part of the Bay of Fundy.
The ferry was designed to transit the extremely high currents and rough conditions which are found in the Bay of Fundy. She is fitted with twin azimuthing propeller drives at each end mounted on one side.
Under extreme conditions the drive units are directed so that the vessel can "crab" across the current. The maneuverability of this ferry is excellent. It can effectively go where the drive units are pointed and the independent control of each unit allows the ferry to dock in extreme conditions. The drive units are completely isolated from each other allowing a high level of redundancy in the event of a failure.
Currently all of Nova Scotia’s ferries are EYE Marine designs. “Petit Princess’” Particulars are:


PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS
LENGTH OVERALL ------------------------ 42.00 m
LENGTH OA INCLUDING RAMPS ---- 55.46 m
BREADTH ------------------------------------- 12.80 m
MAX DEPTH ---------------------------------- 2.1 m Extreme to bottom of Rolls Royce Thruster Leg
POWER ----------------------------------------- 2 - Caterpillar 540Bhp@1800RPM MCR
PASSENGERS -------------------------------- 95
CARS -------------------------------------------- 24