Alan McGillivray has made good on his promise to add another $3.5-million catamaran to his fleet.
The president of adventure tour operator Prince of Whales vowed he was thinking about it when he unveiled his first 95-passenger catamaran this year. Thursday, he made it official when the company announced it has contracted a Vancouver shipyard to build a sister ship to the Salish Sea Dream.
ABD Enterprises of North Vancouver will build the second ship, which will launch in the spring of 2019 and be based in Victoria.
“Leading up to this year, tourism in this city and Vancouver has been fantastic,” said Prince of Whales spokesman Ben Duthie, noting their ridership and demand has gone through the roof and allowed them to make this kind of investment.
McGillivray, who started the company in 1993 as a water-taxi service in Sidney and has grown it into a fleet of 14 vessels, said the expansion is all about the success of their first season with the catamaran.
“It’s very stable, very reliable and it's proved to be an amazing platform for tours so we’ve had rave reviews from our guests,” he said in a statement.
“Business was up more than 30 per cent on these tours [whale-watching day trips between Vancouver and Victoria and Victoria and Butchart Gardens], we had many sold-out days and we saw whales every single day.”
The new ship will be based in Victoria, while the existing catamaran will be home-ported in Vancouver, giving the company large vessels in each city and the flexibility to transfer large groups back and forth.
The company has also held onto an option to build a third vessel in 2020, if required to deal with demand or to offer a new service.
Paul Nursey, chief executive of Tourism Victoria, called the investment a vote of confidence in the city and the industry.
“It’s awesome to see entrepreneurs put their hard-earned money on the line to show faith in the industry,” he said.
Nursey said having a new vessel available for large groups will increase connectivity between Victoria and Vancouver at a time when Victoria is trying to grow its shoulder-season and conference business.
The new catamaran will come with a conscience, as it builds on technology used in the first catamaran with the next generation of water jets to reduce noise.
"The number one cause of machine noise in the water is propeller cavitation — air bubbles forming as the propellers push through the ocean — but the catamaran has interior water propulsion jets so there are no propellers," said McGillivray.
There is also no machinery hanging below the hull, eliminating the risk of a marine mammal strike, while narrow twin hulls and shallow draught allow it to get into shallow reefs and bring guests closer to nature.
