Even though it was more than two decades ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday. Let me explain. As a young ocean engineer fresh out of college, I was working for Tracor Marine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Half of the Company’s business was a commercial shipyard with a marine syncrolift and two dry docks catering to Caribbean island freighters, U.S. Government work, mega yachts and commercial fishing vessels. The other half of the Company’s work was conducting offshore ocean construction and testing projects primarily for the US Government.
As with most jobs involving the ocean, long periods at sea are usually broken up with intervals ashore. In my case, those times ashore usually involved acting as a naval architect and marine engineer for the shipyard but also included extended cruises aboard my home – a 43’ Albin Trawler named Pomaikai. Pomaikai is Hawaiian for "lucky, fortunate, blessed". As a life-long avid scuba diver, those magical moments cruising and diving with friends were always layered between moments of terror and misery as we started and ended each trip crossing the notoriously rough Gulf Stream.
In 1996, it was after one particularly rough (and messy) crossing aboard the Pomaikai through 14 foot Gulf Stream seas, that a week later I had the great fortune to end up aboard the Kamalino in Kanehoe, Hawaii. I was the project manager for the installation of a half-million dollar, underwater test device. The installation site was on the ocean bottom in 600 feet of water. The test machine was tall and prone to tipping over. The crew was reluctant to tie the equipment down as they explained the boat did not rock and roll and was very stable. Having just left 14 foot seas the week prior, and, looking out at 12 foot seas rolling into Kaneohe Bay where the Kamalino was docked, the crew finally relented and put a few tag lines on to stop my endless nagging. They continued to leave the picnic table and the BBQ grill free standing on the deck with no tie-downs.
As we head out of Kaneohe Bay to the installation site, my head and eyeballs began to oscillate going from looking backwards at the aft deck with the half-million dollar equipment (that I am responsible for!) to looking forward to the 12 foot, Pacific swells ahead of us. It was an incredible experience to arrive on station in 12 foot seas and truly feel like the vessel had not even left the dock. It did not take a rocket scientist to realize that this might be a better way to spend quality time on a vessel at sea, diving and cruising without fearing the dreaded “mal de mere”.
As it turns out, the Kaimalino was one of the first “small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH) vessels ever built. The modern version of this technology was invented by a civilian U.S. Navy engineer working at a research lab in San Diego, California. Tom Lamb was able to carve out some hard to come by government funds and convince the U.S. Coast Guard yard in Maryland to build this prototype SWATH vessel, the Kaimalino. The Kaimalino ultimately operated for more than two decades as a very successful technology demonstrator.
Armed with this inspiration, we set about collecting, analyzing and developing the body of research on the SWATH technology. We at this point included my future wife, Lynn Oetzman and good college friend Peter Herrman. As they say, “the rest is history” (And you can read about it on the history page of this website!). The bottom line is it is an amazing story and it has been an equally amazing time living the story.
The original goal was to find a better way to enjoy time on the water doing what we like best (scuba diving of course!) and doing it with the people we like best – our scuba diving friends! Over 25,000 passenger cruise weeks later, I think we have accomplished that goal and we look forward to continuing to pursue that goal into the distant future. If you are an existing Nekton guest, thanks for coming along. If you are considering a Nekton cruise for the first time, I invite you to give us a try and see for yourself the wonder of this amazing SWATH technology.
Dream, Dive, Discover…
John Dixon
Founder and Executive Manager,
Nekton Diving Cruises, LLC.