Hullo Ferries CEO emphasizes safety, thanks passengers for patience while finding ‘sea legs’

Choppy waters dictated a disappointing start to Hullo Ferries’ opening day, with all sailings between Nanaimo and Vancouver cancelled Monday.

Alastair Caddick, CEO of Hullo Ferries, says cancelling inaugural sailings was not an easy choice — but it was a safe one.

“We’re really disappointed,” he said. “Our team and our crew have really been working hard for months to prepare for the inaugural sailing today.”

Caddick explains Hullo’s vessels are connected to shore power while the crew is away overnight, but an unexpected outage at the Nanaimo docks meant they had to take extra time in the morning to check its impacts. The outage, plus a Wind Warning from Environment and Climate Change Canada for winds ranging from 20 to 30 knots into Tuesday, created a perfect storm, Caddick adds.

“We certainly, very deliberately, are taking a conservative approach in our early days until we get our sea legs,” he said.

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So far, most of the passengers Caddick has spoken with have been very understanding of the seasonally uncharacteristic weather being a driver of this decision, he says.

He adds Hullo will learn from these cancellations and come back stronger. But he’s not worried about the overall optics of his company, because he says the demand for this service is just too high.

“It’s filling an important transportation need,” Caddick said.

Would-be Hullo passenger Bronwyn Bell lives part-time on Vancouver Island and part-time in downtown Vancouver. She told CityNews previously she was excited about the possibility of making her downtown-to-downtown commute more painless, eventually.

“The (Hullo) ferry is faster. It’s just going to be much more of an enjoyable experience — I thought,” she said. “Hopefully in the future, it will be, but it looks like today we’re back on BC Ferries.”

Any passengers booked into sailings Monday, like Bell, will receive a 100 per cent refund, Caddick said.

“It’s on us,” he said, adding that full refunds will continue for any future cancellations as well.

Looking ahead, Caddick says he hopes the communities Hullo is serving will appreciate the company’s intentionally cautious approach until the new system can earn customers’ trust.

“If it takes weeks or months to earn all the trust of the community, we’re planning to do that,” he said.

-With files from Emma Crawford and Angela Bower