First ferry from Pattaya safely arrives in Hua Hin

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

5 hours ago, impulse said:

 

I've been on the roads.  I've never been comfortable.

Read again what I wrote - but to spell it out, the ferry maybe comfortable but will not be reliable, the roads may not be comfortable but will be more reliable.

[hotchilli]

Don't worry, second vessel is in final stages of sea trials, soon to be in service.... 
 

[khunano]

1 hour ago, nickmondo said:

whats your point?  is it crap because its not in the middle of Hua Hin?  its actually much better at Khao Takiab for access.  Unless you like the traffic jams in the middle of Hua Hin?

Point is that it is not where it is as stated in the newspaper article, so people reading it are aware of the fact! I'm not judging the location but the reporting.

[Mook23]

7 hours ago, blazes said:

and who, pray, would want to go on a mini holiday from HH to Pattaya?

 

i know plenty of thai who would want to do that. remember that thai who can afford enjoy these short sanook trips and they don't moan about the fee. i will not be one of them, i *dislike* pattaya and the 2 times i went to Hua Hin i wasn't that excited either. i prefer bang saphan (yai)

[williamgeorgeallen]

8 hours ago, sahibji said:

should have mentioned the travel time.

 

in any case a new chapter in travel within thailand.

this service has been tried twice  before and failed. the chapters last the high season which seems to be getting shorter as the years go on.

[Cake Monster]

" Ferry arrives safely in Hia Hin "

Maybe they were scared of " Pirates " so the Navy intervened with an escort ship.

Or were the company worried the boat would sink, so had a suitably sized rescue vessel on close call ?

[louse1953]

8 hours ago, rhythmworx said:

Does it have a bar onboard?

 

If not I would rather drive

Has your limo got a bar on board?

[oldsailor35]

9 hours ago, sahibji said:

should have mentioned the travel time.

 

in any case a new chapter in travel within thailand.

Read again, the travel time was mentioned 

[oldsailor35]

9 hours ago, Bsd said:

 

The sale of alcohol is banned on all ferries and piers in Thailand.  Advertising alcohol isn't which is why Raja have a giant floating Singha billboard for a boat.

 

You will have to buy your beer from the 7eleven across the road before you board.

Then why can one buy a beer on Naton-Donsak Seatrans ferries.

[oldsailor35]

8 hours ago, smew said:

one test and 100% success wow wow ! ! ... now let us have ..say 25 tests and see that ratio///

Just cannot wait to see it fail, can you, looser !

[oldsailor35]

8 hours ago, mortenaa said:

Still they manage to operate high speed Catamarans between Chumphon, Koh Tao, Koh Phanghan and Samui 3 times daily. For several years. Never seen a cancelation (probably has been) 

This is true, but many have no idea about this successful service 

 

[trainman34014]

Shock and Dismay....something arrived safely !    Lol.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 hours ago, andre47 said:

2. The ferry is a lightweight catamaran and therefore a bit sensitive against wind and waves. It can easily happen that a trip will be canceled because of bad weather.

 

 

Or, in keeping with local style, they'll just ignore the bad weather once the service gets up and running fully. And then one of these days, there'll be a lot of tourists dumped into the ocean offshore or into lifeboats, if they actually end up with any serviceable ones onboard.

[tx22cb]

8 hours ago, korkenzieher said:

<<snip>>

Strictly for tourism purposes, Hua Hin would probably be better advised to build a new regional airport, a little inland, linking it to Isan, Chiang Mai and Malaysia without the need to go through Bangkok. At NOK Air rates, that *would* be an interesting venture.

I thought that there was an existing airport in Hua Hin?!

[GMajor]

9 hours ago, NanLaew said:

 

Another reason they need calm sea conditions to keep the passengers calm.

 

Obviously some captains might assess sea conditions on a totally different scale 

 

 

[Jonmarleesco]

So is this intended to be a daily service, or will it be dependent on weather conditions and the availability of a frigate and patrol boat - to ensure no overloading?

[balo]

2 hr 30 mins ? Wasnt it supposed to be  an amazing 1 hr.40 min journey  ? 

[Bsd]

11 hours ago, oldsailor35 said:

Then why can one buy a beer on Naton-Donsak Seatrans ferries.

 

Maybe Seatran are ignoring the rules, possibly they are the reason why the marine department inspected all the Samui ferries early last year.

 

Lomprayah and Raja don't sell beer on board and Raja doesn't sell beer at their restaurants in Lipa Noi and Donsak because they are on the same property as the pier.  Unless I missed it Lomprayah don't sell beer at Maenam.  In Thongsala and Nathan you can get a beer from 7eleven because they are across the road from the pier.

[tx22cb]

3 hours ago, balo said:

2 hr 30 mins ? Wasnt it supposed to be  an amazing 1 hr.40 min journey  ? 

The ferry had to allow the accompanying naval vessels to keep up with it. Besides, one does not want to go full steam ahead on the first trip in unfamiliar waters.

[Geoff Snell]

   Just a personal thought. One small ferry for passengers (like the Marmaris/Rhodos passenger ferry) and one big vehicle/passenger ferry (like either Butterworth/ Penang ferry or English/Bristol Channel ferry). Because of overheads/maintenance/insurance etc etc will a high safe standard be maintained???

     I think a ferry is great but have a minor reservation which I shouldn't have but do have. After all this is Asia and anyone out there that has traveled on the Rocket Boat from Dhaka to Khulna in Bangla Desh will understand where I coming from. That was an experience in its own right.

[Alan Deer]

22 hours ago, impulse said:

 

All good points, but a hundred years of research isn't as good as running it up the flagpole and seeing how many people salute.  

 

I just hope they have the staying power to tweak the details to see what appeals to different people.  They may make money on concessions at either end and on the boat itself, they may want to run a different schedule on weekends, they may want to offer monthly passes at a reduced rate to absorb some of the empty seats, and on and on.

 

They may be able to make a go of it carrying cargo in addition to passengers.

 

But in the end, you have to start the service before you can tweak it.

If you don't do your research, it doesn't say much for the companys business plan  and their professionalism

A hundred years of research prevents the launch if an organisation that loses money for its investors .that cuts corners with safety to save money and endangers the lives if its passengers.

For a service to be useful on that route (and I'm not suggesting it is even feasible ) it needs to be affordable for those who could benefit from the shortcut offered and it should carry vehicles and freight....otherwise it is just an expensive joyride for tourists...and inevitably of limited possibility

[impulse]

36 minutes ago, Alan Deer said:

If you don't do your research, it doesn't say much for the companys business plan  and their professionalism

A hundred years of research prevents the launch if an organisation that loses money for its investors .that cuts corners with safety to save money and endangers the lives if its passengers.

For a service to be useful on that route (and I'm not suggesting it is even feasible ) it needs to be affordable for those who could benefit from the shortcut offered and it should carry vehicles and freight....otherwise it is just an expensive joyride for tourists...and inevitably of limited possibility

 

You're assuming they didn't do the research, or do it sufficiently.  I contend they did, but now they need real world data to test their theoretical results.

 

First day out, they proved that people will actually happily get on the boat for the ride.  That's good info.  Now they need to find out if they'll actually pay to take that ride.  Then they'll figure out how much they'll pay.  Seems like a logical process.

 

They started out with a 2nd hand boat and a few thousand liters of diesel.  They still have a 2nd hand boat, with a few hundred liters less diesel.  I suspect the boat's current owner probably did a free loan in hopes they'll buy it, and order more of them.  And I suspect they'll try out carrying vehicles when they have a vehicle carrying vessel available to them at a cost that makes sense.

 

Their investment in this marketing trial has cost them peanuts so far.   And they'll soon have more reliable market data than a hundred years of market surveys.

 

[Alan Deer]

1 hour ago, tx22cb said:

The ferry had to allow the accompanying naval vessels to keep up with it. Besides, one does not want to go full steam ahead on the first trip in unfamiliar waters.

"Unfamiliar waters"??? I sincerely hope not! But one must be concerned  about how they have  calculated  journey times and then decided to publish only the most optimistic times.. It is suggestive of an attitude.....

[Alan Deer]

posted in error

[Alan Deer]

38 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

You're assuming they didn't do the research, or do it sufficiently.  I contend they did, but now they need real world data to test their theoretical results.

 

First day out, they proved that people will actually happily get on the boat for the ride.  That's good info.  Now they need to find out if they'll actually pay to take that ride.  Then they'll figure out how much they'll pay.  Seems like a logical process.

 

They started out with a 2nd hand boat and a few thousand liters of diesel.  They still have a 2nd hand boat, with a few hundred liters less diesel.  I suspect the boat's current owner probably did a free loan in hopes they'll buy it, and order more of them.  And I suspect they'll try out carrying vehicles when they have a vehicle carrying vessel available to them at a cost that makes sense.

 

Their investment in this marketing trial has cost them peanuts so far.   And they'll soon have more reliable market data than a hundred years of market surveys.

 

 

 

Impulse -

 

Well you got my first point - I most certainly do think that.

 

“they started with a second-hand boat and a few thousand litres of diesel” OMG! - talk about shoestring or what - I would immediately question issues of safety and viability.

 

 

There is little evidence to support any research having been done but quite a lot to suggest a suck-it-and-see attitude.

 

Firstly several similar attempts at this service have ended in failure already....yet they haven’t said how they are going to do it better.

 

It is also pretty clear they didn’t have a boat to begin with and now they aren’t even sure how many passengers will take up the service..

 

They are so in the dark about passenger volume that they are talking about another boat “if the service takes off” - how vague is that??

 

They also seem to have priced it too high for volume - I think they’ve done the pricing purely on costs without regard for take up.

 

The fact that the pier at one end of the journey was unfit escaped them - that does not bode well for advanced business planning

 

I also outlined above my concerns for the actual time taken for the trip- they show no indication that they are aware of the vagaries of the sea and weather on journey times.

I haven’t seen a lot of information about safety on their boat either - apart from regular checks - what are they checking - if up to date safety systems aren’t there in the first place, what is there to check?

 

They have not released the figures for take up of the free trips or the people’s thoughts on paying for the trips....was there eve  a questionnaire on the trip?

And it will take a while for the paying trips to came through as viable or not...OR WILL IT??? - the last attempts found out very quickly that the services weren’t viable and the boats were ‘taken out of service” very quickly indeed. One assumes that this time at least they have some backing to subsidise the service to for a while to let it establish itself.

 

Graft nepotism and corruption have meant that traditionally marketing wasn’t necessary in Thai business and unfortunately that legacy is still with us to quite a large degree - I think this service may well be yet another example of an unplanned business venture that happens largely because the main men involved are not really putting anything personally at risk.

 

My second point is connected to the first point and that I would doubt that this service is actually meeting any market needs - it’s just a jolly - and take up will be minimal. A service offering vehicle/freight options might have some cost effective appeal but apart from tourists who don’t get seasick with money to burn, I can’t see the demographic myself.

[HerbalEd]

On 1/6/2017 at 8:44 AM, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

The only problem is you maybe delayed for a week. Is reliability not as important as comfort?

Do you fly? Ever had a delayed or cancelled flight? Sure, you have ... many times. But I bet you still continue to fly.

[HerbalEd]

On 1/6/2017 at 8:54 AM, rhythmworx said:

Does it have a bar onboard?

 

If not I would rather drive

Do you have a bar in your car?

[siam2007]

4 hours ago, HerbalEd said:

Do you fly? Ever had a delayed or cancelled flight? Sure, you have ... many times. But I bet you still continue to fly.

 

 

pointless, as flights are rarely delayed for a week. Not even in Thailand

[moonray]

22 hours ago, balo said:

2 hr 30 mins ? Wasnt it supposed to be  an amazing 1 hr.40 min journey  ? 

You did not apply your mind before asking this question?

[moonray]

On 1/6/2017 at 9:48 AM, sydneyjed said:

What happens if the ferry cancels a trip and you have already paid...do you get your money back straight away?The last ferry operators were plagued with bad sea conditions and cancellations and that ultimately was their demise and the end of that.I for one hopes that this new venture works but have my doubts for the long term!

In case of cancelation and you being in hurry - you may rent jetski,take spare canister with gas and...go!