Birdon was awarded the contract to design and construct three new vessels to service Norfolk Island. The aluminium vessels were designed by Birdon’s in-house Naval Architects and were purpose built, at our Port Macquarie shipyard, for Norfolk Island conditions. The Passenger Transfer Vessels (PTVs) are designed to ferry 90 passengers at a time from cruise ships into the Island. The PTVs are fitted with NAMJet J431 propulsion water jets that enable the vessels to achieve 17 knots.

In their first operational exercise, the PTVs successfully transferred 1883 passengers from a cruise ship to the Island. It is hoped that these vessels will enable more cruise ships to stop at Norfolk Island and contribute to the local economy there.