Harbor Breeze Cruises, a tour operator based in Long Beach, California, has taken delivery of a new purpose-built hybrid vessel that will provide harbour tours, whale watch cruises, and dinner events in and around the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex.
Designed by Nic de Waal of New Zealand-based naval architecture firm Teknicraft Design, the 108-foot (32.9-metre) monohull vessel El Escudo (“The Shield”) was built to exceed US EPA Tier IV and California Air Resources Board (CARB) air quality requirements.
This was achieved through optimised hull efficiency, full integration of advanced exhaust aftertreatment systems, and a design centred around a parallel hybrid propulsion architecture, enabling reduced-emission navigation during low-speed harbour operations.