SSTH Ocean Arrow explained

-- commercial vessels -->	+SSTH Ocean Arrow Ship In Service: 1998 Ship Identification: Callsign JM6586 Ship Tonnage: (JG) Ship Length: 72.09m (236.52feet) LOA Ship Power: 28000kW Ship Speed: (service) (max.)

SSTH Ocean Arrow is a super slender twin hull (SSTH) car ferry operating in Japan. Prof. Hideaki Miyata at Tokyo University developed the SSTH, a high-speed catamaran-hulled boat, as a joint work with IHI Corporation.

It entered service in 1998 between Kumamoto and Shimabara. The trip takes about 30 minutes, or about half the time that it had previously taken.

Despite their prevalence in Europe, previous attempts to bring a fast ferry to Japan had failed due to wake wash and wave damage in the Japanese coastal areas. In Ireland, a swimmer was drowned in one instance which was thought to be caused by wake wash from a fast-moving ferry.

External links

• Web site: All about OCEAN ARROW . Kumatomo Ferry Co., Ltd..
• Web site: SSTH passenger car ferry Ocean Arrow . . https://web.archive.org/web/20101117075938/http://www.ihi.co.jp/ihimu/images/seihin/pl11_1.pdf . 2010-11-17.
• Web site: SSTH passenger car ferry Ocean Arrow . . https://web.archive.org/web/20070927033745/http://www.ihi.co.jp/ihimu/images/seihin/pl11_2.pdf . 2007-09-27.
• Web site: Masahiro . Itabashi . Ryoji . Michida . Performance of SSTH-70 after Delivery and Future of SSTH . National Maritime Research Institute.