SITKA -- Allen Marine has formally launched a unique catamaran that will be used by oil companies to explore the Canadian Beaufort Sea.

Now, the boat must be taken out of the water, disassembled and placed onto trucks for the long trip north.

"It's been a neat process, it's totally different from what we normally do," said Ken Baker, who managed the project for the Sitka boat building company.

Baker and Tom Scheidt, an Allen Marine vice president, watched recently as the Geo Tiger II, a 64-foot aluminum boat with a split hull, underwent a brief sea trial at the company's Sitka headquarters. The boat was dropped into the waters of Jamestown Bay by a Travelift, and pulled to a nearby slip by another Allen boat.

Boat launches are old hat at Allen, and Baker pointed out that most of the workers did not venture outside the shop to see the Geo Tiger II's short voyage.

But the boats Allen is building for offshore oil exploration are anything but typical.

The company has spent the last year building three boats for Geokinetics, a Houston company that does work around the globe exploring for oil and gas. The contract, which Allen officials said was approaching $4 million, kept about 30 skilled laborers extremely busy for more than 12 months.

Baker said Geokinetics wanted an entirely mobile fleet, and provided Allen with a design for boats that could be broken down into pieces that could fit on standard shipping trucks.

Baker said the boats Allen recently completed could be transported by truck, train or even airplane.

"They need to be able to move them quickly to any place in the world," Baker said.

BELOW THE SEA FLOOR

After the sea trials, Baker said the boat's generators will be tested. The boats are scheduled to leave Sitka on June 7. They will be barged to Skagway, then loaded onto a truck for the drive to the far northern reaches of Canada.

The boats are due in Mackenzie Bay on July 15. Once there, a team of eight to 10 Allen workers, overseen by Baker, will put the boats back together.

When asked if the prospect of putting the boats back together was daunting, Baker laughed.

"It's a very large sequence to carry out," Baker said, adding: "We know every aspect of these boats in detail. That's going be an advantage."

Baker explained that the three boats will eventually work as part of a team. Each is equipped with two 600-hp engines, and the boats are designed to go 10 to 11 knots.

The Geo Tiger II is a "gun boat" that will tow two large skiffs equipped with "compressed-air shotguns." The other two boats will follow behind, laying cable.

Baker said compressed air is fired at the sea bed, and the reverberations are captured by the cables, creating a map of underground rock formations. Geokinetics then sells the information to oil companies, which subsequently use it for oil and gas exploration.

4,000 CONNECTING BOLTS

Geokinetics executives traveled to Sitka from Houston recently to look at the vessels. At first, Geokinetics planned to handle the transport and reassembly. But the company decided it would be best to have the boat builders on hand to put them back together.

The hull of each catamaran can be broken into three pieces. Each boat's wheelhouse can also be removed, and broken in two. Baker said each boat has about 4,000 connecting bolts and two generators. They're designed to work in remote areas, and each is equipped with plenty of spare parts.

Baker said that after the work in Canada is complete the boats will be sent to the Gulf of Mexico or Australia.

Scheidt said it's too bad the boats aren't in the Gulf of Mexico right now, to help with the oil spill clean-up.