The sale in 2008 of Princess of Whales, a power catamaran tour vessel, has resulted in history being made in California. What began as a fairly typical aluminum boat built as a scuba dive platform was recently transformed into the first hybrid vessel to operate on the San Francisco Bay.

The boat, originally named Pacific Dream, started its career in Louisiana in 1998 when it was launched at the Tri-Kat shipyard in Gulfport, Louisiana. It was designed to hold 149 passengers and three crew members. As a catamaran, it had two hulls bridged by a wet deck. Over the wet deck was constructed a spacious galley with seating for 50 passengers. Two outside stairways ran from the outside of the galley near toe stern to an equally spacious sundeck. Forward of the galley were two doors leading to the bow. Forward of the sundeck was the bridge.

Even though the boat was a new construction of high quality aluminum, the two engines that were placed in it were used. Catamarans are generally faster than mono-hull boats, but this one developed problems immediately that made it anything but fast. The delivery trip through the Panama Canal and up the west coast was slow, fraught with breakdowns. Its service in the dive trade, running from Huntington Beach to Catalina Island, was spotty at best.

The breakdowns continued and were linked to two problems in the original construction. The wet exhaust systems of both engines were both poorly designed and poorly built. The exhaust water couldn’t effectively leave the engine and on at least one occasion with each engine, backed up into the engines and caused enough damage to warrant rebuilding them. No rust remover would fix it. The second problem was wiring. The engines, computer operated, were the second generation of Detroit Diesel’s attempt to produce cleaner exhaust. They depended heavily on adequate DC voltage. That wiring, running almost the entire length of the 73’ boat, was faulty in size (too small in gauge), and many of the connections were poorly done.

The boat developed an untrustworthy reputation and was put up for sale in 2000.  It was purchased by a whale watch company operating on the Monterey Bay. The new owners understood that reliability of this vessel was key to their success. The vessel was renamed Princess of Whales and began operation immediately; but knowing the history of the problems, as derived from scouring the logbook, the new owners first replaced the exhaust systems. They both heightened the angle at which the water flowed out, and changed from aluminum to stainless steel.

Next came the wiring. They had the advantage of having a full set of blueprints from the original construction from which to work. The DC wiring was replaced with a larger gauge and hundreds of connections were replaced. Princess of Whales did indeed prove to be reliable. The first catamaran to work for a  whale watching Monterey Bay company, it attracted a lot of attention and, more importantly, paying passengers. The owners kept their original boat, a 39 passenger monohull. The two boats complimented each other well. The smaller of the two was by comparison inexpensive to operate. Princess, though expensive to operate and maintain, made money through economy of scale. It was the first 149 passenger boat to ply those waters; the largest to that point had been an older, wooden 98 passenger vessel owned by a competitor.

After several years, the couple that owned Princess sold the smaller boat and the company. They put Princess of Whales into a time charter in Stockton, CA, doing trips on the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. The combination of steeply rising fuel prices and poor management of the tour company made the owners receptive to an offer made by the Hornblower Yachts of San Francisco.

The owner of Hornblower Yachts sent a marine surveyor to Stockton to go through the boat; he was impressed with what he saw. The surveyor was accompanied by the manager of Hornblower. Neither would divulge, nor would the broker handling the potential sale, how the boat was to be used. Soon after, the construction blueprints were requested. They were sent to a firm of noted marine architects in Florida for review. 

It was clear to the owners of the boat that some major modifications would be made if Hornblower bought the vessel. These modifications would have to have the blessing of a marine architect and would then need to be approved by the United States Coast Guard. Hornblower bought the boat and took immediate delivery. The previous owners were finally told only that the vessel was to become a model for green marine technology; she was taken directly from Stockton to a shipyard on the San Francisco Bay.

Many months and over $2 million dollars later, Hornblower Hybrid made her debut. The sundeck had been covered completely with solar panels. Two large transparent wind generators had been placed on top of the bridge. The engines had been removed entirely. The boat, which had been the first commercial vessel on the Monterey Bay to be powered by biodiesel by the previous owners, is now powered primarily by green-generated electrical power, with backup diesel generators only used when necessary. Its service speed is 10 knots, considerably less than with the old diesel engines, but it is green, clean speed.