The dive charter ship, Ocean Guardian, is up and running for dive charters in 2021 and has a new creative diver lift. With this diver lift, what’s so different? This lift, instead of the rear, is a hydraulic lift situated at the front of the boat. Your entry and exit will be fast and simple, away from the propellers and the engine.
For the past couple of years, Captain Roger McDonell has been studying dive boat designs. He talked with Eaglecraft Boats’ Torry Wannenwetsch about their new HLC model (Hybrid Landing Craft) and adapting the design to function on a dive boat at last year’s Vancouver Boat Show. Eaglecraft Boats began laying the hull for the new design as a “spec’ boat for them to sell in June of last year.
Safety has always been top of the mind for Roger who has run boats on this coast for nearly forty years now. “I had my first dive charter boat back in 1985 while working at the Sportfish Centre in the Discovery Marina. That was about the same time Beaver Aquatics was started by Bryan Erickson and Steve Nagle.”
Ocean Guardian is a dive charter boat service based in Campbell River, British Columbia and combines with Oceanfix.ca Dive Centre (formerly Beaver Aquatics).
Ongoing testing has been carried out with the lift on the Ocean Guardian and Greg Baldock of Oceanfix dive centre is hoping to draw many divers from across Canada and the USA to go diving in 2021. Of course, this depends on COVID19 and the restrictions for travel. Both Greg and Roger are hoping their unique design will “make a splash” in the dive community.
