Agata Ferry, Ischia

When I was walking around Porto di Ischia, the ferry Agata entered its water area and, with amazing speed for such a large vessel, turned around almost on the spot, stood at one of the berths, opening the loading ramp while still on the move.

The Agata classe project consists of two vessels built by Cantieri Navali del Tirreno e Riuniti at the Riva Trigoso shipyard near Genoa. The ferries, designed to carry 400 passengers and 92 vehicles, were ordered by the state-owned railway company Ferrovie dello Stato to operate in the Strait of Messina. (It is not entirely clear why the customer is a railway; ferries were originally built as automobile ferries). The Agata ferry was laid down on January 2, 1973 and commissioned on November 10 of the same year (quickly built in Italy!), the second ship, called Pace (Peace), laid down on February 5 of the same year, entered service on January 24, 1974. The ferries were then chartered by ENEMAR to operate on the Villa San Giovanni-Messina line until 2003. Then the ferries worked in Sardinia-between Palau and Maddalena, where they worked until 2011. After being replaced by new ferries, Agata and Pace remained idle in Genoa until they were bought out by Medmar in January 2013 to operate on the island of Ischia. First of all, the vessels underwent a small modernization of the loading ramps-they were adapted to work in new conditions, and in February the ferries started working on the Ischia-Pozzuoli line.

The secret to the amazing maneuverability of the ferry is in the Voith Schneider thrusters located at the ends (it is difficult to determine where the bow is, where the stern is, because the ends are almost identical). Thanks to them, ships can go in any direction, even sideways, and turn around on the spot. The main engines of the ferries have a power of 3570 kW, which allows them to reach a speed of 13.5 knots.

I borrowed the animation of the engine from Wikipedia

It is difficult to determine where the bow is, where the stern of the ship is, because the ends are almost identical. It is distinguished only by the presence of red foam generator tanks of the fire extinguishing system, probably this is the bow. Fire barrels are also installed on the rear side of the bridge. I have never seen such a powerful fire extinguishing system on civilian ships, apparently Araga can perform the functions of a fire ship.

I took another picture of the Agatha the following morning, from the ferry bound for Naples.

Agata ferry off the coast of Ischia.