New electric ferry praised as 'real step change'
Two-time Olympic sailing champion Iain Perry has said a new electric ferry for the Isle of Wight will be a "real step change".
At a maritime industry event on the Isle of Wight, BBC South was invited onto a smaller, demonstration version of the craft as it made a short journey on the Solent.
The new passenger ferry, with capacity for 150 people, is expected to begin crossings early next year.
Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel, said she hoped the addition to the fleet would help the company move from a 35-minute to a 30-minute timetable.
It comes after criticism from the prime minister, as well as Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East Joe Robertson.
Robertson said passengers had faced "excessive ferry prices and bad services," while Keir Starmer said services for islanders had "simply not been good enough."
Red Funnel had previously apologised for "any inconvenience", and said it had "faced some challenges" and not met its punctuality targets.
Artemis Technologies, run by former Olympian Perry, are the company behind developing the new ferry.
The electric crafts use hydrofoils - underwater wings that lift the vessel's hull out of the water as it moves, which the company claimed reduces drag and increases speed.
"It's halfway between a plane and a boat," said Perry.
"You get to a certain speed and it takes off and flies above the waves," he said. "It's going to be a real step change."
Ms Collins said the new addition to the fleet was taken to help the company meet its decarbonisation targets and provide a faster service.
"As an industry we need to decarbonise, and decarbonisation is something we can't do on our own... we have to do it in partnership," she added.
Electric zero-emission ferry moves step closer
Solent ferry operator to order three new vessels
Ferry cancellations due to crew shortage
You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
'A huge moment': Martin Jarmond discusses UCLA's plans after House settlement
UCLA football coach DeShaun Foster, left, and athletic director Martin Jarmond now have clearer guidelines on how to allocate funds and scholarships to athletes after a judge approved a House settlement in an antitrust lawsuit. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press) Like a quarterback who completed offseason workouts, spring practices and fall training camp, Martin Jarmond had been preparing for this moment for nearly a year. On Saturday came the big unveiling. The UCLA athletic director discussed with The Times the plans for his department's operations in the new college sports world created by the House settlement agreement with the NCAA that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time starting July 1. Advertisement The big takeaways: UCLA will distribute $20.5 million in revenue sharing — the maximum allowed under the settlement — while keeping its Olympic sports programs and athletic department staff intact. The school will also preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player. 'This is a pivotal moment in collegiate athletics, and we have to continue to invest in our athletics program to compete at the highest level,' Jarmond said. 'That's why student-athletes come to UCLA, to get the best education and compete at the highest level, and we must invest in our student-athletes to provide that championship-level experience.' While Jarmond would not divulge the specifics of his revenue-sharing arrangement, it's expected that UCLA will follow other Power Four conference schools in using U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's back-payment formula as a model for current athletes. Under this formula, which will distribute $2.8 billion to athletes who competed from 2016 to 2024 to compensate them for lost name, image and likeness opportunities, roughly 75% of the money will be shared with football players, 15% with men's basketball players, 5% with women's basketball players and 5% with all remaining athletes. Read more: Landmark NCAA settlement decision clears way for schools to directly pay athletes Advertisement 'We've worked really hard to look at the House settlement, along with other factors,' Jarmond said, 'to determine how we were going to split up the revenue share.' Jarmond told The Times last year that he anticipated a bigger share of revenue going to football and men's basketball players because they were 'responsible for more of the revenue based on the House settlement and the back pay for NIL and all those things.' Payments will rise each year as part of the 10-year settlement agreement. Even though roster limits could eventually rise to 105 for football and 15 for men's basketball as part of the settlement, keeping scholarship limits at their current levels — 85 for football, 13 for men's basketball — will allow UCLA to provide each player on scholarship a bigger share of revenue. As part of the settlement agreement, any money used for scholarships (which have an estimated value of $65,000 per athlete at UCLA) comes out of the revenue sharing pot. Jarmond said his department would reevaluate this arrangement in a year to ensure it was best serving the school's athletes. UCLA is also committed to preserving its Olympic sports that have provided the lion's share of NCAA championships in an athletic department widely regarded as one of the best in the nation. Jarmond said there would be no staffing cuts, but some personnel might be reassigned to better serve the athletic department. Advertisement 'We are looking at reallocating staff,' Jarmond said, 'to positions that better meet our needs in a changing landscape.' The ability to pay players directly could help UCLA in ways that go beyond compensating its athletes. Revenue sharing arrangements could help narrow the resource gap between the Bruins and other Big Ten Conference schools that had more deep-pocketed NIL collectives engaging in pay-for-play practices. Now, all new NIL deals exceeding $600 must be approved by NIL Go, a clearinghouse created by the College Sports Commission to analyze deals to ensure they serve a valid business purpose and provide fair market value. It's expected that all existing college NIL collectives — including UCLA's Men of Westwood (which serves men's basketball), Bruins for Life (football) and Champion of Westwood (women's basketball, Olympic sports) — will essentially become marketing agencies that try to find endorsement deals for athletes. Advertisement Read more: Chancellor Julio Frenk suggests he'll be actively involved with UCLA athletics Jarmond said UCLA was seeking a third-party partner to help secure so-called true NIL opportunities. Being based in Los Angeles should provide Bruins athletes with a clear advantage in securing marketing deals, Jarmond said. Other challenges remain. Having traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal NIL legislation, Jarmond said he believed it was necessary to eliminate the imbalance that exists with more than 30 states having their own NIL laws. While distributing $20.5 million in revenue will be another financial blow to an athletic department that has run $219.5 million in the red over the last six fiscal years — though the entire debt has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero — Jarmond said he has long championed athletes being paid and believes the move is long overdue. As part of the settlement involving back pay to athletes, UCLA's share of NCAA revenue will be reduced by more than $1 million annually for the next 10 years. Advertisement UCLA's finances could soon improve under a College Football Playoff revenue sharing agreement that is expected to provide Big Ten schools an additional $8 million to $12 million annually beginning in 2026. That's on top of media rights deals tilted heavily in favor of Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools, giving the Bruins another infusion of much-needed cash. The athletic department has a new ally in Chancellor Julio Frenk, who signaled his intention to be closely involved with the school's sports programs during a recent interview with The Times. 'Chancellor Frenk has been extremely supportive of athletics and the impact that it has on our community,' Jarmond said. 'He has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way. He hit the ground running during a pivotal time not just for athletics but the university, and he has demonstrated support at a high level and I'm grateful for his leadership at such a pivotal time for athletics.' While acknowledging that UCLA athletics needed to be more creative with revenue generation as part of what he called 'a huge moment' that would forever change the trajectory of college sports, Jarmond said the school's commitment to sports was unwavering. Advertisement 'We have to be bold and innovative in this new world,' Jarmond said. 'UCLA has always been on the forefront and been a leader and that's not going to change. We will embrace this new era and we will continue to support our student-athletes at a championship level.' Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
14 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘A huge moment': Martin Jarmond discusses UCLA's plans after House settlement
Like a quarterback who completed offseason workouts, spring practices and fall training camp, Martin Jarmond had been preparing for this moment for nearly a year. On Saturday came the big unveiling. The UCLA athletic director discussed with the Times the plans for his department's operations in the new college sports world created by the House settlement agreement with the NCAA that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time starting July 1. The big takeaways: UCLA will distribute $20.5 million in revenue sharing — the maximum allowed under the settlement — while keeping its Olympic sports programs and athletic department staff intact. The school will also preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player. 'This is a pivotal moment in collegiate athletics and we have to continue to invest in our athletics program to compete at the highest level,' Jarmond said. 'That's why student-athletes come to UCLA, to get the best education and compete at the highest level, and we must invest in our student-athletes to provide that championship-level experience.' While Jarmond would not divulge the specifics of his revenue-sharing arrangement, it's expected that UCLA will follow other Power Four conference schools in using U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken's back-payment formula as a model for current athletes. Under this formula, which will distribute $2.8 billion to athletes who competed from 2016 to 2024 to compensate them for lost name, image and likeness opportunities, roughly 75% of the money will be shared with football players, 15% with men's basketball players, 5% with women's basketball players and 5% with all remaining athletes. 'We've worked really hard to look at the House settlement, along with other factors,' Jarmond said, 'to determine how we were going to split up the revenue share.' Jarmond told The Times last year that he anticipated a bigger share of revenue going to football and men's basketball players because they were 'responsible for more of the revenue based on the House settlement and the back pay for NIL and all those things.' Payments will rise each year as part of the 10-year settlement agreement. Even though roster limits could eventually rise to 105 for football and 15 for men's basketball as part of the settlement, keeping scholarship limits at their current levels — 85 for football, 13 for men's basketball — will allow UCLA to provide each player on scholarship a bigger share of revenue. As part of the settlement agreement, any money used for scholarships (which have an estimated value of $65,000 per athlete at UCLA) comes out of the revenue sharing pot. Jarmond said his department would re-evaluate this arrangement in a year to ensure it was best serving the school's athletes. UCLA is also committed to preserving its Olympic sports that have provided the lion's share of NCAA championships in an athletic department widely regarded as one of the best in the nation. Jarmond said there would be no staffing cuts, but some personnel might be reassigned to better serve the athletic department. 'We are looking at reallocating staff,' Jarmond said, 'to positions that better meet our needs in a changing landscape.' The ability to pay players directly could help UCLA in ways that go beyond compensating its athletes. Revenue sharing arrangements could help narrow the resource gap between the Bruins and other Big Ten Conference schools that had more deep-pocketed NIL collectives engaging in pay-for-play practices. Now, all new NIL deals exceeding $600 must be approved by NIL Go, a clearinghouse created by the College Sports Commission to analyze deals to ensure they serve a valid business purpose and provide fair market value. It's expected that all existing college NIL collectives — including UCLA's Men of Westwood (which serves men's basketball), Bruins for Life (football) and Champion of Westwood (women's basketball, Olympic sports) — will essentially become marketing agencies that try to find endorsement deals for athletes. Jarmond said UCLA was seeking a third-party partner to help secure so-called true NIL opportunities. Being based in Los Angeles should provide Bruins athletes with a clear advantage in securing marketing deals, Jarmond said. Other challenges remain. Having traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal NIL legislation, Jarmond said he believed it was necessary to eliminate the imbalance that exists with more than 30 states having their own NIL laws. While distributing $20.5 million in revenue will be another financial blow to an athletic department that has run $219.5 million in the red over the last six fiscal years — though the entire debt has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero — Jarmond said he has long championed athletes being paid and believes the move is long overdue. As part of the settlement involving back pay to athletes, UCLA's share of NCAA revenue will be reduced by more than $1 million annually for the next 10 years. UCLA's finances could soon improve under a College Football Playoff revenue sharing agreement that is expected to provide Big Ten schools an additional $8 million to $12 million annually beginning in 2026. That's on top of media rights deals tilted heavily in favor of Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools, giving the Bruins another infusion of much-needed cash. The athletic department has a new ally in chancellor Julio Frenk, who signaled his intention to be closely involved with the school's sports programs during a recent interview with The Times. 'Chancellor Frenk has been extremely supportive of athletics and the impact that it has on our community,' Jarmond said. 'He has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way. He hit the ground running during a pivotal time not just for athletics but the university, and he has demonstrated support at a high level and I'm grateful for his leadership at such a pivotal time for athletics.' While acknowledging that UCLA athletics needed to be more creative with revenue generation as part of what he called 'a huge moment' that would forever change the trajectory of college sports, Jarmond said the school's commitment to sports was unwavering. 'We have to be bold and innovative in this new world,' Jarmond said. 'UCLA has always been on the forefront and been a leader and that's not going to change. We will embrace this new era and we will continue to support our student-athletes at a championship level.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Government struggles to cut foreign aid spent on asylum hotels
The government is struggling to cut the amount of foreign aid it spends on hotel bills for asylum seekers in the UK, the BBC has learnt. New figures released quietly by ministers in recent days show the Home Office plans to spend £2.2bn of overseas development assistance (ODA) this financial year - that is only marginally less than the £2.3bn it spent in 2024/25. The money is largely used to cover the accommodation costs of thousands of asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK. The Home Office said it was committed to ending asylum hotels and was speeding up asylum decisions to save taxpayers' money. The figures were published on the Home Office website with no accompanying notification to media. Foreign aid is supposed to be spent alleviating poverty by providing humanitarian and development assistance overseas. But under international rules, governments can spend some of their foreign aid budgets at home to support asylum seekers during the first year after their arrival. According to the most recent Home Office figures, there are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels in the UK. Labour promised in its manifesto to "end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds". Contracts signed by the Conservative government in 2019 were expected to see £4.5bn of public cash paid to three companies to accommodate asylum seekers over a 10-year period. But a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) in May said that number was expected to be £15.3bn. Asylum accommodation costs set to triple, says watchdog Asylum hotel companies vow to hand back some profits On June 3, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Home Affairs Committee she was "concerned about the level of money" being spent on asylum seekers' accommodation and added: "We need to end asylum hotels altogether." The Home Office said it was trying to bear down on the numbers by reducing the time asylum seekers can appeal against decisions. It is also planning to introduce tighter financial eligibility checks to ensure only those without means are housed. But Whitehall officials and international charities have said the Home Office has no incentive to reduce ODA spending because the money does not come out of its budgets. The scale of government aid spending on asylum hotels has meant huge cuts in UK support for humanitarian and development priorities across the world. Those cuts have been exacerbated by the government's reductions to the overall ODA budget. In February, Sir Keir Starmer said he would cut aid spending from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% by 2027 - a fall in absolute terms of about £14bn to some £9bn. Such was the scale of aid spending on asylum hotels in recent years that the previous Conservative government gave the Foreign Office an extra £2bn to shore up its humanitarian commitments overseas. But Labour has refused to match that commitment. Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy at the Bond network of development organisations, said: "Cutting the UK aid budget while using it to prop up Home Office costs is a reckless repeat of decisions taken by the previous Conservative government. "Diverting £2.2bn of UK aid to cover asylum accommodation in the UK is unsustainable, poor value for money, and comes at the expense of vital development and humanitarian programmes tackling the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement. "It is essential that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul." Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, said the government was introducing "savage cuts" to its ODA spending, risking the UK's development priorities and international reputation, while "Home Office raids on the aid budget" had barely reduced. "Aid is meant to help the poorest and most vulnerable across the world: to alleviate poverty, improve life chances and reduce the risk of conflict," she said. "Allowing the Home Office to spend it in the UK makes this task even harder." "The government must get a grip on spending aid in the UK," she said. "The Spending Review needs to finally draw a line under this perverse use of taxpayer money designed to keep everyone safe and prosperous in their own homes, not funding inappropriate, expensive accommodation here." Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour promised in their manifesto to end the use of asylum hotels for illegal immigrants. But the truth is there are now thousands more illegal migrants being housed in hotels under Labour. "Now these documents reveal that Labour are using foreign aid to pay for asylum hotel accommodation – yet another promise broken." A Home Office spokesperson said: "We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure, and continue to take action, restoring order, and reduce costs. This will ultimately reduce the amount of Official Development Assistance spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. "We are immediately speeding up decisions and increasing returns so that we can end the use of hotels and save the taxpayer £4bn by 2026." Is the government meeting its pledges on illegal immigration and asylum?
