Nichols To Construct 800-Passenger Dinner Boat

Nichols Boat Builders is currently building a new $8 million dinner boat for Argosy Cruises, designed to resemble the bluff-bowed steamboats of the Mosquito Fleet that plied Puget Sound before the turn of the century. The 180 ft. vessel is expected to enter service along the Seattle waterfront in June 2000 carrying 800 passengers on three decks, according to John Blackman, Argosy board chairman and Matt Nichols, president of the Whidbey Island, Wash. boat building company. Powered by a pair of 7,000-hp Lugger engines from Alaska Diesel Electric, with power plants employing Twin Disc deep case reduction gears driving the vessel to a top speed of 11 knots.