The new vessel ‘SeaYou’, from the company Joy4Rent, Lda., designed to carry out trips in ‘sea bus’ mode between Calheta (Porto de Recreio) and Caniçal (Quinta do Lorde), with a stopover in Funchal (Cais 8), is the result of an investment of 600 thousand euros, which in the summer should be extended to Porto Santo, and may also be extended to the North coast of Madeira in the near future.
Data revealed by Afonso Gomes, director of the company, during the visit to the catamaran vessel of the President of the Regional Government, this Saturday, at the Porto de Recreio da Calheta.
A commitment that complements the maritime-tourism offer, in this case based on a ‘SeaBus’ project, which foresees the creation of between “10 and 15 jobs”.
André Gomes, who is also one of the mentors of this business model, talks about “an innovative project that basically solves one of the biggest problems we have here on the island, which is travel by land, and with this service we want the tourist masses to be able to travel by sea as well”.
For now, the ‘sea bus’, which is more geared towards tourism, although it also aims to ‘convince’ residents to take advantage of the reduced sea congestion to travel between Calheta and Caniçal, is running two trips a day (round trip) with a promotional price starting at 27.50 euros per person. The campaign is expected to last until the end of March. “From then on, prices will increase by around 50%”, he reveals. “On Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, we leave from Calheta, and on the remaining days of the week, except Monday, we leave from Caniçal. Departures at 8:30 am, and passengers are picked up in Funchal at around 9:45 am and 10 am, depending on the direction of travel”, he explains.
The modern catamaran, in addition to a comfortable journey, offers free Wi-Fi, a bar (drinks and snacks) and has the particularity that all of the vessel’s electrical systems are powered by solar panels. The vessel’s propulsion itself was supposed to be electrified, but an unforeseen event changed the plans and compromised the application for community support.
“The initial investment was around 600 thousand euros, because this vessel was planned to be electric, but due to a failure by our suppliers, unfortunately, it was not possible to deliver an electric vessel. However, sustainability is something that we like and value immensely, and for this reason, we decided to keep the entire structure of the boat also light and include solar panels, so that all the electrical consumption of the vessel is ecological”, he explained.
Change that forced the company to bear the entire investment in the acquisition of ‘SeaYou’.
“We had support from ADRAMA, but when we were unable to deliver the entire electrical project, we ended up losing that support and now we are at our own expense.”
This constraint did not prevent the company from starting this innovative activity at the beginning of this year, nor did it discourage the company from wanting to go further with the ‘SeaBus’.
“Porto Santo is on the horizon and the North Coast is also on the horizon, but we will have to see how things go first, calmly. But we plan to launch a product for Porto Santo in the summer in a private style”, admitted Afonso Gomes.