Ferry `cross the Mersey

Agent Doug has his weekly meeting with his controller "M" , due to Govenment restrictions niether Doug or Martin can be named or photographed,
hno: :skull: :shocked: :doh:



photo, by "Q" :devil:

Splendid set of photos Woody.

I wonder if there is a market for a "floating hotel" ferry with cabins that you could sleep in - so you could board at Liverpool, go for a cruise and then it would spend the night at Seacombe or Woodside before returning you to Liverpool in the morning. It would have its own bar, restaurant and obsevation lounge. Even in winter it would be exciting for those who like a bit of stormy weather, and it would be nice and relaxing in summer when you want to by the water and enjoy the sea breezes. Maybe the old Royal Iris could be converted? It would be a really strong business: cruises during the day and evening, and hotel at night.

You can hire one of the ferries for a few thousand quid for the evening, and I think that is going to be a growing business with all the conferences in Liverpool from the convention centre. Say 40 cabins @ £100 a night, that is £4,000 a night, and the boat could probably make the same again with morning and afternoon cruises in busy periods and dinners / drinks at night. If it earned say £8,000 a day/night for the busier half the year, and just £4,000 a day/night for the quieter half of the year (ie an average of £6k daily throughout the year) that would be a turnover of £2.2million pounds.

There might also be a bit of demand for day trips down to Llandundno, which would add to the tourist offer for people staying in Liverpool. Tourists could sail back overnight after a nice day out in north Wales, seeing the glorious Liverpool Bay sunset while they enjoy their drinks and meal on the boat and enjoying a world-famous view of Liverpool over breakfast. Companies could hire it for "overnight" staff away days, which might work out cheaper than doing it on land, or it might also be hired for those companies who want a "captive market" of corporate guests and customers at conferences, eg for evening meal, corporate video etc........although of course you could always jump ship at the Wirral side and get a cab back to town if you did feel a bit trapped I suppose.

It could also be chartered for weddings, and people spend stupid amounts of money on wedding receptions these days. People could get married in mid-river, have their wedding reception onboard whilst cruising the river, drop off guests at the Pier Head and Wirral at various points in the evening, and the remaining drunken guests who were staying in the cabins could all sleep it off on the boat without the hassle of taxis or getting to hotels etc. I think there would be enough uses to keep demand high year round, which would be important to the economics of the thing. You might close it for a month or two for maintenance work in January and Feb I suppose, if demand was too low, and lay off the casual staff. A staff-sharing deal with the Mersey Ferries might be useful for them and this company. (I don't know the law on this, but if sea burials are allowed, it could also be chartered for funerals, at least tipping ashes into the river / bay if not whole bodies, although presumably that would be a short one hour cruise rather than an overnight thing, and you might not want to publicise that too widely as it might sound a bit gruesome...point I am making is that I think there are dozens of groups of people and companies who might find profitable uses for such a boat).

Does anyone want to form a company to do this? I'll sell you this idea for a fiver. http://www.ferryphotos.co.uk/pages/royaliris.htm How many cabins could you get into that boat, leaving a large meeting room/bar/restaurant and observation lounge? The economics would I suppose depend upon how big you could go, because a lot of the costs (eg maritime and catering staff, fuel, berthing costs, maintenance) would be fixed anyway. Do you think you could fit 60 cabins in there? That would make a dramatic change to my back of envelope calculation of £2.2m turnover, which was based on 40 cabins, and its profitability. If the old Royal Iris isn't big enough, there must be loads of larger boats that would be suitable knocking about?

A few more photo`s from a beautiful day on the river.........

Royal Iris of the Mersey


Love these Pilot Boats, these guys will be eager for the Cruise Liner Facility, more work and their new base will be at the north end of the new pontoons/


Irish Ferry heading for Twelve Quays.........



The Liverpool skyline............








Soon to disappear the old ferry terminal.......