Huakai
The Huakai at the Austal USA shipyard
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Huakai |
| Owner: |
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| Operator: |
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| Port of registry: | Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Builder: | Austal USA |
| Cost: | US$88M |
| Yard number: | 616 |
| Way number: | 1 |
| Launched: | September 29, 2008 |
| Status: | Laid Up |
| Notes: | Never entered commercial service |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ferry |
| Displacement: | 1646 Tons |
| Length: | 373 ft (114 m) |
| Beam: | 78 ft (24 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Decks: | 4 |
| Deck clearance: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Installed power: | 4 x MTU 20V 8000 M70 |
| Propulsion: | 4 x Rolls-Royce KaMeWa 125MkII waterjets |
| Speed: | 35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Capacity: | 866 passengers, 282 cars |
| Crew: | 21 |
The USNS Guam (HST-1), formerly Hawaii Superferry's Huakai, is a United States Navy high-speed transport vessel. The ship was completed in September 2008 and was intended to start Hawaiian service in May 2009, though delivery postponements saw that planned service canceled. In the Hawaiian language, huakaʻi means "journey".
The design of the Spearhead-class Joint High Speed Vessel is 70 percent in common with the Hawaii Superferries, both built by Austal USA.
USNS Guam was built as Huakai, whose name is based on the Hawaiian language word huakaʻi, which means "journey". The vessel is a 373-foot (114 m) long high-speed roll-on / roll-off (Ro/Ro) passenger. The vessel was originally built for Hawaii Superferry, and has a capacity of 866 passengers and up to 282 subcompact cars. It is 19 feet (5.8 m) longer than its sister ship, USNS Puerto Rico, due to a bi-fold ramp installed on the stern of the ship.
The vessel featured environmentally friendly technologies including non-toxic bottom paint, zero wastewater discharge and clean diesel engines.
Austal USA, a subsidiary of Austal, an Australian company that is the world's largest builder of fast ferries, built Huakai. Construction on Huakai began in 2007 in Mobile, Alabama. The ship was intended to enter service in 2009, but due to the abrupt shut down of the company, the ship was laid up. Alakai also returned to the Alabama ship yard. On July 2, 2009 Hawaii Superferry decided to abandon the Huakai and Alakai.
In January 2010, the United States Maritime Administration announced that Huakai and Alakai would be used to assist with relief in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
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Wikipedia