In June, the Hornblower Guardian, a new open-deck tour boat, began taking passengers out for wet rides around Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
The 68'×16', 145-passenger, aluminum monohull was built for Hornblower Niagara Cruises, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, by All American Marine, Bellingham, Wash. Designed by Elliott Bay Design Group, Seattle, and E.Y.E. Marine Consultants, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, the boat’s open deck has fixed seats for 143 passengers and space for two wheelchairs.
The small wheelhouse aft is raised to provide better visibility for the operator.
Down below, a pair of 700-hp Scania DI13, Tier 2 engines are matched up to ZF Marine 550 transmissions and MJP UltraJet 452 waterjets.
As the name implies, the Hornblower Guardian has a secondary mission: rescue boat. Push knees on the bow and a tow post behind the wheelhouse are available to assist Hornblower’s two other Niagara tour boats, if needed, and there’s a rescue platform on the starboard side for man-overboard recovery.
With the two 700-hp Scanias, Hornblower’s Charlie Bills said, “She has plenty of horsepower to do what we need to do. She has no trouble on the hip of a catamaran taking it where it needs to go.”
The Hornblower Guardian is operating as part of Hornblower’s new Niagara Cruises with trips to Horseshoe Falls, which are part of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side of the line.
It’s not a long trip, 15 minutes from the dock to the falls and back, said Bills. The boat is in the vicinity of the falls for about five minutes before heading in. That’s a wet five minutes, which explains the brightly colored ponchos that all passengers wear.
Those aren’t the only boats Hornblower is using on the lower Niagara River Gorge. The company also operates a pair of new 86'×36', 700-passenger catamarans, the Niagara Thunder and the Niagara Wonder. Both were built at Hike Metal Products in Wheatley, Ontario, and are powered by pairs of 450-hp Scania diesels.
The Hornblower Guardian, built to comply with Transport Canada regulations, was delivered in December by All American and put into Lake Ontario and the lower Niagara River for trial operations and training. Hornblower Niagara Cruises is part of Hornblower Cruises and Events, San Francisco.
— Michael Crowley
