Everett Boatbuilder's African Ferry Almost Ready for Service

Business News/Analysis, Farming/Growing, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Infrastructure, Sustainability, Uganda, Washington

May 19, 2011

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by Kurt Batdorf (Snohomish County Business Journal) Thain Boatworks’ effort to bring reliable ferry service back to east Africa’s Lake Victoria is about to bear fruit, albeit two years late.
Rob Smith, chief executive and president of EarthWise Ventures Inc. and Thain Boatworks, realizes now that improving traditional ferry service on the world’s second-largest lake is taking much longer than he thought it would. The first 200-passenger ferry was shipped in several 40-foot containers to Uganda in summer 2009. Only now is it undergoing sea trials and it should be ready for service after the Ugandan government commissions it on May 28, he said.
…As many components as possible are installed in the ferry before shipment, including each hull’s Caterpillar engine that runs on full biofuel — no diesel — refined from plants grown by farmers around Lake Victoria.
…During his six to eight trips to Uganda each year, Smith has been recruiting 850 farmers to each grow 1.5 acres of sunflowers for conversion to biofuel. By making it a cash crop, farmers stand to gain about $1,000 per year, a substantial boost to the average farmer’s income.
By the time the 10th ferry enters service, Smith hopes to have a established a viable market for biofuel and expects to have as many as 50,000 farmers around Lake Victoria growing plants for biofuel. READ MORE

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