Navy to take helm of Sea Flyer

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

Navatek Ltd. is bidding bon voyage to the Sea Flyer, its 160-foot experimental vessel, after a year of sea trials in Hawaiian waters.

The Navy is scheduled to take possession of the 320-ton vessel tomorrow and sail it to San Diego, where it will participate in naval exercises.

The ship incorporates an underwater structure similar to an airplane wing to make it ride faster and more smoothly — a technology Navatek hopes to eventually adapt to interisland ferries.

"It's sort of the end of the beginning," said Steven Loui, president of Navatek, about Sea Flyer's impending departure.

By the time Sea Flyer returns to the Islands in six months, Navatek officials hope to have licensed the revolutionary hull technology to the military and the private sector. That would mark a transition for the Honolulu-based company from design developer to licensor.

Navatek, Ltd. was founded in 1979 and operates out of offices in Honolulu with 45 employees. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Marine, founded in 1944, which has 400 employees and annual revenues of $60 million.

Sea Flyer represents the culmination of years of research into catamarans and hydrofoils in an attempt to combine two key traits needed in ships, speed and stability.

"The most important thing about this ship is it allows us to achieve both qualities," Loui said. "We think it's a very important development" in naval architecture."

Under an $18 million contract with the Navy to create the Sea Flyer, Navatek took an existing Navy surface ship and converted it to a "lifting body" ship by adding the underwater wing.

Now the company is looking to secure about $5 million in federal grants to retrofit a different ship for testing as a ferry for use between Moloka'i and Kahului, Maui, and another route between Kahului and Hana, Maui.

Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.