Catalina Bound : 150-Passenger Vessel to Offer Regular Service Between Oceanside and the Island

Seajet of Chula Vista is set to launch the first ferry service from Oceanside to Santa Catalina Island on Friday, but the company faces some rough waters that have already swamped a previous operator.

Seajet president and owner W. T. (Ted) Gurnee, who also owns San Diego Shipbuilding of Chula Vista, last week unveiled the Renna G, a 20-m.p.h., 150- passenger vessel that will shuttle passengers Wednesday through Sunday between Oceanside Harbor and Avalon in about 2 1/2 hours each way.

At $64 per person round trip, Gurnee said, he hopes Seajet will gross about $10,000 a day on the service. Out of his gross revenues, he must pay 5% to the Oceanside Harbor District and $1.50 per passenger to the city of Avalon on Catalina Island.

In beginning an Oceanside-Catalina service, Gurnee is venturing into uncharted waters. Although ferry services to Catalina from San Diego, Los Angeles, Newport Beach and San Pedro have been successful, never before has a service used a North County point of departure.

Two shuttles now take passengers from San Diego Harbor to Catalina. Both began service this spring. One is Catalina Pacifica and the other is Gurnee’s Seajet, a service he insists is “close to being on budget.”

A company called California Cruisin’ attempted to establish a San Diego to Catalina service but failed in 1988 after a year of service.

Even though Oceanside is a smaller city, a growing tourism industry should provide plenty of customers, Gurnee said. Oceanside city officials, who hope the service stimulates local tourism, said they negotiated for two years with several companies before signing an agreement with Seajet.

Gurnee concedes that a Catalina ferry service is a risky venture, mainly because of high boat-repair and maintenance expenses. But Oceanside officials said the strength of Seajet over other companies they negotiated with is that Seajet’s sister company, San Diego Shipbuilding, has repair facilities nearby.

Although other companies would be at the mercy of the schedules and fees of outside contractors, Seajet has an entire shipbuilding facility at its immediate disposal, Oceanside Mayor Larry Bagley said at the christening last week for the Renna G.

“We think it’s going to be a great thing for the harbor, a great thing for Northern San Diego County, and it’s certainly going to be a great thing for Catalina Island,” Bagley said. Last Thursday, the blue-and-white Renna G glided quietly into Oceanside Harbor and docked near a row of small, quaint shops and restaurants. City officials and Seajet executives stood on the bow and watched Rena Gurnee, Ted Gurnee’s 22-year-old daughter and the boat’s namesake, smash the ceremonial bottle of Champagne against the boat’s railing. An additional n was added to the name of the boat to help people pronounce it correctly, Gurnee said.

The boat was scheduled to make its first 50-mile run to Catalina island last Friday, but it was postponed for a week because the boat needed improve- ments, Gurnee said. In fact, the gray paint on the deck was still wet after the christening ceremony, and people’s feet stuck to the floor as they stopped to talk to Gurnee.

“There’s a few things that aren’t finished yet,” he said. “We took on a very large burden . . . when we bought it.”

Gurnee bought the Renna G from the New York Harbor and Ferry Service this year and spruced it up at a total cost of about $1.2 million, Gurnee said. The boat, which is 110 feet long and 30 feet wide, arrived in San Diego about two weeks ago after a 21-day voyage from New York through the Panama Canal. Gurnee said he expects to sink an additional $300,000 into advertising and other start-up costs before the service turns a profit.

Oceanside Harbor District Chief Executive Jim Manues said the city is looking for a solid, financially sound company and that Seajet fit the bill.

“Usually, the reason a boat venture of this type fails is repair expenses,” he said. Seajet has “the facilities they need to keep it up.”

City officials said they have no estimates yet on the economic impact the ferry will have on Oceanside, but Manues said the Harbor District is expecting about $10,000 in monthly fees, depending on ridership.

“Certainly we are interested in the revenue, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this,” he said. “It’s a service to the public.”

Don Harrison, director of the San Diego Cruise Ship Consortium, agreed that things are looking brighter for San Diego-based ferry ventures.

“In terms of the passenger boat industry, I think it’s getting stronger,” he said. “There seems to be a tremendous curiosity on the part of visitors to get on the water and go somewhere.”

Even though Catalina had slightly more than a million visitors last year and some harbor congestion problems, the island can still accommodate more tourism, said Wayne Griffin, executive director of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce.

“We sure hope (the ferry) is successful,” he said. “We see San Diego County as a big market for us.”

Griffin said he believes the Oceanside service will draw a new pool of North County tourists and will not compete significantly with San Diego ferry services.

“My experience with San Diego people is that they want to come out from San Diego,” he said.

Despite the spotty record of San Diego ferry operations, Gurnee said he has plans for an even more ambitious venture: a high-speed, ocean-going shuttle between Oceanside and San Diego for commuters who want to forgo congested highways.

If transportation studies planned for this fall support the viability of the shuttle, Gurnee said, he will build a 350-passenger ship capable of traveling at 50 m.p.h., which could efficiently move daily commuters from Oceanside to San Diego in the morning and back again in the evening. The boat would also make pleasure excursions to Catalina Island, he said.

The plan has many obstacles but Gurnee remains steadfastly optimistic.

“In the long run, it is a service that will make money,” he said. “It’s a volume business. When the volume gets up . . . it will be profitable.”

Although city officials are happy to have a ferry service to Catalina, they are already looking forward to Gurnee’s bigger venture.

“We’ve been talking about this for two years,” said Sam Williamson, a city councilman and chairman of the Harbor Committee. “We’re looking forward to the larger unit that will seat 350. This is just the beginning.”

But Harrison of the cruise consortium said a water commuter service does not seem practical in the near future. Calling Gurnee a “visionary” and wishing him luck, Harrison said the plan’s obstacles include the bond Southern Californians have with their cars.

“The question is, how many people want to use alternate forms of transportation?” Harrison said. “It’s always been difficult to get people to take a boat somewhere that they can take a car.”