All American Marine, Inc., launched a new 65-ft. Teknicraft catamaran for Maui-based Expeditions, which runs a passenger ferry service and tour group. The Expeditions-four catamaran will be used as an inter-island 149-passenger ferry across the Auau Channel between the islands of Maui and Lana'i.
With the Teknicraft design, said Steve Knight, CEO of Expeditions, "we've got increased passenger capacity, fantastic fuel savings, and a better speed range." With their new Expeditions-four catamaran, they will be burning about half the amount of fuel per hour per engine. At the same time, said Knight, "We can actually put 50 percent more people on the boat than we could with our present vessel, and we can maintain a more consistent cruising speed. We had 92 people on the boat for a sea trial and at 22 knots and 85 percent power we were burning about 25 gallons per engine per hour."
The Expeditions-four, which measures 64.8 x 23.5 ft. with a draft of 5.8 ft., is powered by a pair of Detroit Series 60 engines, each delivering 740 hp at 2300 rpm. The engines drive 3 in. AQ22 shaft and 36 by 39 in. 5 blade propellers driven by Twin Disc MGX5114-A Quickshift gears with a 2.5:1 ratio, for a maximum speed of 28 knots (lightship).
"This is the first vessel that we built from start to finish in our new 23,000 sq. ft. production facility," said Matt Mullett, CEO and co-owner of All American Marine, Inc, which holds the exclusive rights to manufacture the Teknicraft design in North America. "The overhead cranes gave us the ability to construct the cabin separate from the hull, which shaved 2 months off our typical production timeline."
"Because of the design," added Knight, "consequently you get superb fuel economy. Our present vessel is burning about 750 gallons of fuel a day on five round trips to Lana'i. That's approximately 50 gallons an hour. With our new Teknicraft design, we'll be burning approximately 25 gallons per hour." A fuel savings of 50 percent, however, isn't Expeditions' only efficiency with the Teknicraft design. At the same time, said Knight, "we can actually put more people on the boat than we could with our present vessel, and we can maintain a more consistent cruising speed."