Aye Captain, tis to see the whales we go

Friday's Daily News featured a story about a new addition to the Prince Rupert waterfront.

Prince Rupert Adventure Tours have a new 100-passenger tour boat ready to sail the waters of the North Coast, destined to see whales and bears through until the end of tourist season in October.


Huge new tour vessel arrives in Rupert
By Christian Webber
The Daily News
Friday, August 10, 2007
Page one

It's been a long process but Doug Davis and Prince Rupert Adventure Tours have a new 100-passenger tour boat ready for the second half of their season.

"It's a hundred passenger, Australian designed catamaran.

"We're trying to meet a need that is here with the cruise ship passengers," said Davis.
He said he has found a niche that they are working at expanding.

The boat came in a little late in the game this year; it was originally expected in May.

It was built in Vancouver and the plans were purchased from Australia. It is about twice the size of the Georgia Master and still goes about the same speed as its older, little sister.

The Inside Passage, as it was named, will be mainly for whale and bear watching but will come in handy for transportation as well. Davis uses his fleet for boating to Port Simpson and Metlakatla.

"Anytime there is a large event over there people are always scrambling to move people, so with 100 person capability we'll do a good job," said Davis.

It will also be one shot over and one shot back to the Dodge Cove Artist Guild, he said.
The bottom floor of the new boat has 80 seats with all windows around them. There isn't a bad seat in the boat, said Davis.

In the middle there is raised seating and a bow deck for viewing bears. He said he tried to maximize the open feel with skylights as well. It is equipped with full wheelchair accessible washrooms too.

Another floor up is a viewing deck overlooking the back and another area of seats for viewing.
On top of that is the control station where there is another small group of seating and the steering wheel along with a private deck that wraps around the front.

On the very top is a full upper deck with a 360-degree view for whale and bear watching.
"It's not about us, it's all about Prince Rupert," said Davis.

"With tourists coming in from everywhere it's a good idea to have something for them to use that reflects what we offer in Prince Rupert."

The other boat does a really good job at what it does, he said, it has its place.

They still do the school runs to Dodge Cove, but he said using the new boat would be a little bit of an overkill for transporting 30 school kids.

He said the whale-watching season is just kicking in now, but they will run both the bears and whales until October when the tourists season starts to dry up.