Hopefully, the solution is new boats that are a more sensible size, and don’t need the extensive infrastructure upgrades the new fleet would have required. One of the cancelled designs would have been a similar displacement to our current fleet of three.
I really hope the solution isn’t another clapped out beater from Europe.
This page mentions a “Top cat” ferry as well as the lynx ones. As far as I can tell though, these are faster boats rather than shorter routes.