Hullo's Vancouver-Nanaimo ferry cancelled its first two days of sailings

Operates Hullo, a foot-passenger fast ferry service between downtown Vancouver and Nanaimo, B.C., as an alternative to BC Ferries or the float plane.

That a 70-minute downtown-to-downtown foot-passenger catamaran service could survive where private operators repeatedly failed on route debris and low passenger uptake

Hullo was set up as a new crossing option with a fleet of two high-speed catamarans, each carrying 354 passengers on a trip estimated at 70 minutes between the two downtowns — while several earlier private operators had tried and failed to keep a passenger-only service on this route afloat.

Its first sailings, planned for Monday 14 August 2023, were cancelled citing high winds and power issues at the Nanaimo berth; Tuesday's sailings were cancelled the same way, and some passengers were left stuck during the first day of service. Environment Canada had warned of gusts up to 55 km/h on the Strait of Georgia, with 60 km/h gusts still forecast near the strait on Tuesday. All booked passengers were offered refunds.

Launching a service whose route has a graveyard of failed predecessors means the first impression is doubly unforgiving.

The stumble was operational, not conceptual: wind and a berth power outage against a brand-new catamaran service still finding its feet.

It shows the tension in a safety-first launch posture when your market is exactly the people who already doubt a private ferry can survive.

A launch date is a promise made to a community that has watched predecessors fail. Opening with cancellations spends, on day one, the credibility a new operator needs for years.

As of 15 August 2023 Hullo planned to sail Wednesday on a revised two-departures-per-city schedule, held until 30 August, with all cancelled bookings refunded. The company reiterated its long-term vision to be 'a pillar of reliability and trust in the community'; whether the route could sustain the service remained the open question its failed predecessors had left behind.