Spirit of Tasmania's short lived Sydney soiree: This day in 2003

The sky was the limit for the Spirit of Tasmania this day in 2003.

Perhaps not the sky, but Sydney as it was announced a ferry link between Tasmania and NSW would kick off by January 15 the following year.

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The voyage was made possible after the purchase of "Superfast II", a vessel operating between Italy and Greece capable of carrying 1400 passengers and 210 vehicles.

It was announced the Tasmania to NSW trip would take place three times a week with each journey taking about 20 hours.

The total cost of acquiring Superfast II stood at $105 million which the state government planned to pay for across four budgets.

Then premier Jim Bacon said the ferry link would tap into a Sydney tourism market.

"Sydney represents a huge, largely untapped market for the state and now is the time to act to really penetrate into that market - the biggest market in Australia for us," he said.

Mr Bacon said the business case for the vessel was sound - both in operation and demand.

"The demand is there to not only achieve the business case but to surpass it," he said.

"The fact that the total project cost ... coming in at $105 million, is an exceptional result. One that certainly puts the business case on a very sound footing."

Then TT-Line chief Peter Simmons said the ship would create between 700 and 1100 jobs.

It was also predicted the ship would bring in droves of tourists. Tourism forecaster TASMO predicted a 23.1 per cent increase in domestic visitors to the state from 2003-2007.

The purchase was one that drew rare bipartisan support with then opposition leader Rene Hidding praising the decision to capitalise on a booming Sydney market.

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"This is a good day for Tasmania, the acquisition of a third ship adds to the tourism opportunities for Tasmania and we could say nothing other than this is good news," he said.

Then Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Damon Thomas said the government's business case showed an expected 55,000 people were likely to use the service.

Within three years the service had been cancelled as demand plummeted and uptake failed dismally.

On September 6, 2006 the ship was officially sold by Spirit of Tasmania.

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