Allen Marine Tours repowers eco catamarans with Scania engines

Allen Marine Tours has outfitted two eco touring vessels with Scania QUAD V8 D116 engines. (Photo: Scania)

Allen Marine Tours, one of the oldest tour companies in Alaska, has selected 800-hp Scania engines to repower two 78-foot eco tour catamarans.

Delivered by Cascade Engine Center, the Scania QUAD V8 D116 082M engines are built on a Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) engine block and employ a reliable wastegate turbocharger, which will ensure top-of-class performance without needing more turbos or superchargers.

The resulting lighter-weight, proprietary Engine Management System and XPI injection system (common rail extra high-pressure) optimizes fuel delivery and enables impressive torque, lower noise and exceptional fuel efficiency, Allen Marine Tours said.

The 150-passenger catamarans were custom built at their own shipyard in Sitka, Alaska, and can reach 30-plus knots at full capacity – and more than 35 knots with a lighter load.

“The growing reputation of the reliability, high performance and efficiency of Scania engines for this type of vessel has been instrumental in our decision to select them for this project,” said Jamey Cagle, CEO of Allen Marine Tours. “Our experience with Scania and Cascade Engine Center has been incredible, and we’re confident this relationship will continue to grow as we update the rest of our fleet to become more sustainable.”

The company manages a fleet of more than 45 Certificate of Inspection (COI) tour vessels throughout the southeast Alaskan region.

The 78-foot catamarans travel along the Inside Passage in southeastern Alaska.

“We have seen a lot of interest in our V8, 16-liter engines by tour operators in ecologically sensitive areas like Alaska due to their low environmental impact, high power-to-weight ratio and fuel efficiency,” said David Hughes, sales manager of Marine Products for Scania USA. “Allen Marine Tours is a well-known and established operator, and gaining their trust to repower two of their vessels, each with QUAD V8s, is an honor.

“We are confident that they will be extremely satisfied with the performance of the engines as they move toward a standardized propulsion system. We hope this is the first of many repowers they will be commissioning in the years to come,” he said.

The family-owned Allen Marine Tours has operated vessels traveling among the Alaskan ports of Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Gustavus and Yakutat on the Inside Passage for more than 50 years, and the company’s tours focus on viewing wilderness and wildlife, as well as the area’s culture and human history.

The touring company said all its vessels, most of which are high-performance, waterjet-powered catamarans, feature spacious and comfortable passenger accommodations, wrap-around windows and expansive open-air observation decks.