2 Firms Intend to Launch Daily Ferry Runs From S.D. to Catalina

San Diego officials gathered at the colorful B Street Cruise Terminal Wednesday to announce long-sought plans for a high-speed ferryboat service to Santa Catalina Island and came away with not one, but two companies that say they are ready to start the service.

The first company can be best described as sort of the “official” choice. The San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium since 1984 has courted Catalina Cruises of San Pedro, the major ferryboat service to Catalina in Southern California and one of 200 companies owned by Crowley Maritime Corp. of San Francisco.

The second company is the upstart California Cruisin’, a new San Diego-based company with no ferry experience that plans to use one of Catalina Cruises’ old boats.

Both the companies and cruise consortium officials say they welcome the competition. “The water’s free and the competition is healthy,” said Don Harrison, cruise consortium executive director.

Cruise consortium officials, led by chairman and San Diego City Councilman Bill Cleator, had called a press conference to announce that Catalina Cruises, after two years of discussions, had agreed to start ferryboat service next June 1 linking San Diego with Catalina Island and Long Beach.

Terry Koenig, Catalina Cruises general manager, said his company plans to have custom-built a $3-million, 98-foot-long, twin-hulled catamaran capable of carrying 400 passengers for the 70-mile trip to Avalon. The boat, which will have a top speed of 37 knots and make the passage in two hours, is similar to ones used on San Francisco Bay by the Red and White fleet, a sightseeing business also owned by Crowley.

One-way tickets from the B Street Pier to Catalina will cost $20 for adults, $16 for 12- to 17-year-olds, $10 for 2- to 11-year-olds and 60 cents for youngsters under 2. Those 55 and older will pay $16 for the one-way fare.

Fares for the one-way, 90-mile trip to Long Beach, which would operate only in the spring and fall, when a limited weekend schedule would be in place, would cost about $2 more.

Under the proposed summer schedule announced by Koenig, the ferry would depart San Diego at 8 a.m. daily and leave Catalina for the return trip at 4:30 p.m.

The company, Koenig said, filed an application to operate the service with the California Public Utilities Commission, and a hearing is expected later this fall.

Based on a marketing study done by the company, Koenig said his firm expects to sell about 50,000 one-way tickets in the first year. This compares, he said, to the about 1 million one-way passengers that now travel on the company’s several boats operating from San Pedro and Long Beach.

“We don’t need a tremendous amount of passengers from San Diego,” Koenig said, explaining that he expects it to take two years before the ferry service from San Diego would be profitable.

In order to cover the costs of the new boat during that time, the company will integrate the vessel into its ferry fleet carrying people to Catalina from Long Beach and San Pedro once it arrives in the morning from San Diego.

Eventually the boat, described as having lounge-type seating, card tables and a snack bar, would be phased out of service in the northern cities as business in San Diego increased.

The ferry service, said Cleator, will be used primarily by people living in the San Diego area rather than by tourists from “Topeka or Albuquerque.”

Charles (Chip) Boyd, president of California Cruisin’, had no such marketing report to point to. Boyd, who along with other California Cruisin’ officials attended Wednesday’s press conference, said he expects to start his ferry service on about Oct. 17, though the company has yet to receive PUC approval.

Boyd said his firm’s application had been challenged by Catalina Cruises but that he expects to win state approval.

The proposed California Cruisin’ schedule calls for a daily trip to Catalina in the winter, and two trips daily on weekends and in the summer. A round-trip ticket for an adult would cost $39, or $1 less than the Catalina Cruises price.

Boyd said he has been in the maritime business since 1963, most recently as the owner of the California Maritime Services in San Diego, a company that chartered tugs and barges.

The vessel California Cruisin’ expects to use is a 210-passenger catamaran called the Klondike, which Catalina Cruises used on its Long Beach-to-Catalina run in July, 1984. Later, the boat was tested by the Red and White Fleet in San Francisco.

“As a result of these tests, both Catalina Cruises and Red and White Fleet determined that, while high-speed catamarans were suitable for their services, this particular vessel was not,” according to a background paper released by Catalina Cruises.

But Boyd said the ferry is adequate and needs only to be refurbished, which his company intends to do.

“Our program is a lot different,” said Boyd, who declined to elaborate.

Harrison, of the cruise consortium, said he was aware of California Cruisin’s proposal and that the consortium invited the company to make a presentation but no one from the company showed up.

In going after Catalina Cruises, Harrison said the cruise consortium wanted an experienced and established company. Catalina Cruises has been providing ferry service to Catalina for about 15 years.

“We extend them good will,” Harrison said of California Cruisin’.

Koenig said his firm challenged California Cruisin’s PUC application because his company had been working with the cruise consortium since 1984 and because “we don’t think it’s (the Klondike) a suitable vessel.”

But competition from California Cruisin’ won’t change his company’s plans, Koenig said.

“We’re in it for the long run,” he said. “It’s the free enterprise system. . . . Quite honestly, who’s going to do the best job will be determined by the public.”