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This ferry is said to weigh 250 cows. We say that is actually 20,600 Lindisfarne Gospels

Nice try, Isle of Wight council

A new chain ferry has been built for the Isle of Wight – and the council reckon it weighs the same as 250 cows.

The comparison was made in a council statement to the Isle of Wight County Press, which wrote all about the Welsh-built “floating bridge” in slightly more detail than anyone except council press officers would really want to hear.

We are told the ferry will transport 400,000 vehicles and 1.5 million passengers per year and, predictably enough, that the 180-tonne lump of steel will become “iconic”.

It’s that part which tickles the ire of the Reg Standards Soviet. As any fule no, the bridge’s weight is correctly expressed as about 20,600 adult badgers (or Lindisfarne Gospels, if you’re of an ecclesiastical bent) approximately 200 Great White Sharks or about a third of the Las Vegas LINQ Hotel’s annual recycling.

“We are looking forward to welcoming the sixth floating bridge to its permanent home on the Isle of Wight,” said local councillor Ian Ward, the council’s exec member for transport and infrastructure.

The drive-through ro-ro ferry will be the same length as four double-decker buses, or around a quarter of a brontosaurus. Foot passengers will have to pay £1.50, up from £1, this year. Folk travelling on it should expect to move at around 0.0001 per cent of the maximum velocity of a sheep in a vacuum. ®

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