Chugach Express
Chugach Express is a fast, fuel-efficient catamaran for Alaskan glacier tours. From its anti-fog passenger windows to its waterjet propulsion system, it’s designed to comfortably transport passengers deep into Prince William Sound.
“We have really great performance out of this vessel. She exceeded all our estimates,” said Ron Wille, president and chief operating officer of All American Marine, the Bellingham, Wash., shipyard that built the 80.1-by-30.7-foot aluminum catamaran for Phillips Tours and Cruises.
Fully loaded with 150 passengers and four crew, Chugach Express can travel at 32 knots at about 85 percent power. The propulsion system includes four 800-hp Scania DI16 082M engines driving four MJP 350X high-speed mixed flow waterjets, which rotate for greater maneuverability.
The hydrofoil between the Chugach Express’ double hulls is a key design element. The foil lifts about a third of the boat out of the water at higher speeds to reduce drag. The boat performs differently depending on how many passengers and other items it’s carrying.
Using digital controls, the captain can adjust the hydrofoil angle to maximize the boat’s performance for the given circumstances.
“It really enables our customers to make incremental adjustments to the hydrofoil to improve the overall fuel efficiency of the vessel, depending on the load of the vessel,” Wille said.
Hydrofoils are a focus for Nic de Waal, the New Zealand-based naval architect with Teknicraft Design who collaborated with All American Marine on Chugach Express and other vessels. The two companies also partnered on Captain Murchison, an 80-foot law enforcement patrol boat built for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; Storm Petrel, a 50-foot scientific research vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and Spirit of Matushka and Skana for Major Marine Tours.
In an email exchange, de Waal discussed the differences and similarities among some of these vessels. While the function of hydrofoils on vessels such as Chugach Express and Captain Murchison is similar, each hydrofoil is custom designed for a specific vessel.
“There are a number of critical values that determine the design of the foil, such as the vessel’s displacement, its cruise speed, its center of gravity and the propulsion system (propellers or waterjets),” de Waal said. “The physical dimensions of the hull also play a part. Therefore, every different vessel has a different foil, and that ensures that the specific foil is optimized for the particular vessel.
“We are always in a state of development and our foil designs are constantly improved,” he went on. “Note that Storm Petrel has a semi-displacement hull shape designed for cruise speed below 20 knots, and therefore that vessel does not have a foil.”
Phillips Cruises and Tours dates to 1958 and operates from Whittier, Alaska, sending tour boats into Prince William Sound. Its signature trip is a glacier cruise that lasts about six hours and covers around 150 miles. Passengers can see humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions and dozens of species of birds, as well as land animals such as mountain goats and black bears, according to Cody Hanna, marine operations manager with the tour company.
He said the company only operates catamarans, which provide a smoother ride to tourists even in challenging conditions. “The catamaran is just a much more stable platform. You just don’t roll.”
Chugach Express, ordered in 2022 and completed this year, brings its fleet to four vessels. Hanna said the company needed another vessel because the business is growing.
It also gives them versatility to run tours during “shoulder seasons” before and after the peak tourist season, which runs from mid-May into mid-September.
During the first two weeks of May — or the last two to three weeks of September — the company may not have enough passengers to fill up its larger boats, such as the 332-passenger Klondike Express. By using a smaller boat during these lower demand periods, the company can save 500 to 600 gallons of fuel per day, Hanna said.
“We do somewhere between 130 to 145 nautical miles in under six hours, and that’s why we need the speed,” he said. “Glacier Quest doesn’t have the speed to do that trip, and we wanted another 149-passenger boat that had the speed to be able to fill in the role of that trip.”
modern amenities.
The company wanted passenger amenities, including inside bathrooms for guests. They also incorporated a heated cabin to account for rain and fog that’s frequent in Prince William Sound. The vessel interior has enough room for tables and meal service and incorporated large double-pane windows to prevent fog that might otherwise obscure pristine views.
During construction, Hanna flew to Bellingham several times to monitor progress. And when the vessel was completed, he brought it back to Alaska. “I got the responsibility of going down there and launching it and going through sea trials and getting it cleared, and then gathered up a few people and took it from Bellingham to Whittier,” he said. “We left, I think, on a Friday, right around 11 a.m. and we made it at 1 a.m. to Whittier the following Tuesday.”
The contract for Chugach Express was signed in September 2022, with a planned delivery in May 2024. All American delivered the vessel in April of this year. The total cost was about $6 million. “I think one of the key things for us and for the owner, which All American Marine is just really proud of, is that we delivered the boat on time and on budget,” Wille said.
The name “Chugach” refers to a specific group of Native Alaskans, Hanna said. The Chugach people are believed to have lived in the area around Prince William Sound for thousands of years, and some 1,500 tribal members still live in the region today, according to the Chugach Regional Resources Commission, an organization supporting the Chugach people.
Chugach also refers to geographical features of the land that people see on the cruise: the Chugach National Forest and the Chugach mountains.
Hanna said the rotating jet drives are a practical choice for an environment that includes ice and debris in the water, plus whales and other wildlife. A propulsion system with no moving props means there are no propeller blades to get damaged or strike wildlife.
“Our captains love that feature,” Hanna said. “The boat is incredibly nimble. It drives like an 80-foot jet ski, is how we joke around it. It’s just so maneuverable.”
This means a captain can drive the vessel straight out from a dock or turn it in place. “And with it being very intuitive, you don’t need to look down. Your hand feels where you’re at,” Hanna said. “You know your throttle is at this position. You know you’re steering, you can feel how much you’ve turned, and it’s all got indicators there. But the way these controls work, yeah, just it feels very natural. It’s easy for people to pick up.”
The crew on Chugach Express generally consists of a captain, a senior deck hand, a person working the bar and galley, and usually two other deck hands. In addition to running its own day tours, Phillips Cruises and Tours cooperates with Princess Cruises to shuttle longer-term cruise passengers back and forth between Whittier and Valdez, about 100 miles away across the sound.
“They’ve been using the boat exclusively roughly two days a week. It helps meet that and keep our other boats available so that we don’t have to drop a boat on our day cruises to fill that need,” Hanna said.
Wille is happy to have been able to deliver a high-performing boat to the tour company. “We really strive to create a win-win scenario in all of our in all of our relationships with customers and with our employees, and this is a great example of that being successful.” •