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BOATBUILDING deck level crew seating and a service speed of around 10 knots. In addition, Westar’s existing boat engine compart- ment accesses were obstructed when a large amount of car- go was stored deck, leaving captains and deckhands with no direct access to crew cabins from the pilothouse.

Westar has also been successfully running steel mono- hull crew boats with conventional propeller propulsion for decades and was understandably somewhat hesitant to change what was working for them. Hence, the initial design concept for Westar’s new vessels was a 65 foot alu- minum mono-hull with conventional propulsion. Westar’s requirement for service speeds in the low to mid 20 knot range with EPA Tier 3 engines brought about the concept of investigating a high ef