Isles of Scilly ferry time could be SLASHED to one hour!
Twenty-eight miles off Land’s End, the Isles of Scilly are one of the most remote corners of the South West. For a good chunk of the year, they’re tough to reach!
The Scillonian III ferry doesn’t run through winter, and the alternative, flying from Land’s End or Newquay, gets cancelled routinely when the weather turns.
Councillor Robert Francis, chairman of the Council of the Isles of Scilly, put it bluntly: in winter, “we’ve got families marooned on the islands.” For islanders needing hospital appointments on the mainland, or visitors hoping for an off-season trip, the options narrow to almost nothing.
A very different kind of boat is now being tested to solve this problem!
Enter the hydrofoil
Over four days this September, Belfast-based Artemis Technologies ran demonstration trials of an electric hydrofoil vessel in the waters around Newlyn and St Mary’s – the same crossing currently served by the Scillonian.
The technology behind it, called eFoiler®, lifts the hull clear of the water on underwater wings once the boat is moving, cutting drag dramatically and, crucially, smoothing out exactly the kind of rough seas that ground the current ferry and flights each winter!
“The whole joy of the hydrofoil system is it lifts the vessel out,” said Artemis’s John Patterson, making for what he described as a far more comfortable ride than a conventional hull crashing through waves.
From two and a half hours to just over one
A full-size version of the vessel – the Artemis EF-24 Passenger – would carry 150 passengers at up to 32–34 knots, making the Newlyn-to-St Mary’s crossing in just over an hour. Compare that to the Scillonian’s current crossing time of roughly two and a half hours!
There’s also none of the diesel engine or emissions of the existing service!
The EF-24 is also designed to keep foiling in seas up to 2.5 metres, with a fast-charging battery that tops up in under an hour between crossings.
What happens next?
Artemis Technologies is working alongside ferry operator FRS Group, innovation agency Connected Places Catapult, and the Council of the Isles of Scilly, with government funding channelled through the Department for Transport’s UK SHORE programme – a £230m+ pot aimed at decarbonising UK maritime transport.
A feasibility study has already concluded that the route is technically and commercially viable. The September trials were the next step: proving the vessel handles the open water between Cornwall and Scilly, not just calmer test conditions.
What’s still missing is an operator. Artemis says it’s now actively looking for a company willing to run the service, and Patterson is realistic about the runway needed to get there: “probably 18 months to two years, with fair winds behind us.”
Why it matters for the South West
If it happens, it would be the first year-round, weather-resilient link between the mainland and Scilly in living memory!
For a place whose entire tourism economy depends on people being able to get there, and whose residents currently plan their winters around the risk of being cut off, this is huge!
