Back in 2010 they were going to use the two former Wightlink FastCats (one even got repainted), but the whole thing fell through. It strikes me as a completely daft idea. Are there hordes of people from North Devon eager to visit Swansea (or wherever) or are they expecting the population of South Wales to be dying to be dumped in a small town on the north coast of Devon (or Cornwall)? And what about the weather? If they are going to have a vessel that is large enough to cope with the winds and seas charging up from the South-western Approaches, how fast will it be? If they have to cancel sailings due to weather (or other reasons) it is quite a long coach trip back and a lot of bad publicity. I can’t see there being enough regular traffic to provide a basis for the service and the market for day trips is likely to be very fragile.
This seems to be the maritime equivalent of some of the reopening proposals that are reported from time to time. It only surprises me that anyone would be thinking of putting their money into it (or is it other people’s money).
