A to P 10: People Carriers

Tuira II anchors west of Perico.

Different sites related to Canal and Bay Tours say this boat was built by Wiley Manufacturing of Port Deposit MD, makers of sixth boro’s Patricia,  Norfolk’s Hoss, and Erie Canal’s Capt Alix, but Wiley history doesn’t reflect this.  Any help?

Also in the Canal and Bay Tours fleet is this vintage 1912 wooden vessel in Neponset MA by Lawley & Sons, Islamorada.  A claim is that Al Capone once owned her.

Here she shares a lock at Miraflores with a bulker. More closeups of the locks and tugboats soon.

Below is the same Islamorada  I took in mid-March 2012;  that’s a range marker in the foreground to the right.  I prefer the 2012 color scheme.

Fantasía del Mar, here docked in Gamboa and alongside Atlas III, is the third of three US boats operated by Canal and Bay Tours . . . and said to be built by Eastern Shipbuilding of Boothbay, but I know of no such yard.

Las Cruces . . . she could be US built, but again . . . no info.  I thought it looked US built, and thanks to readers and some following up on my part, I can say it is a 1961 Blount vessel still carrying its original name.

Safari Voyager, not flagged US but operated by UnCruise Adventures, is definitely a US bottom, built in 1982 in Salisbury MD, the yard where many of the recent Vane vessels originate from.   That’s also the shipyard that has built American Cruise Line vessels.

Wind Star, featured here just recently, was built in France in 1986.

And finally . . . in the background one morning was Maasdam, heading for Mexico, launched from a Fincantieri yard in Italy in 1993.

The green trimaran–I’ve forgotten the name–was super light and fast, heading for the Marquesas.  She transited the Panama Canal maintaining the requisite minimum of 6 knots with an outboard!  According to her owner, she can make 5 knots in 2 knots wind.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

And again a repeated request:  Please send me a photo of your seat.  What I mean is this:  I’d like to do a post on captain’s and/or pilot’s chairs.  I’m looking for the luxurious all the way to decrepit or basic.  Email me a photo of the chair and identify the vessel. You don’t need to be sitting in it.  I’ve got photos of two seats so far, but I’d like a half dozen before doing a post.