OUR COMPANY
The idea for Nekton Diving Cruises, LLC. was conceived in 1986. Today, Nekton is a scuba industry cornerstone company providing week-long cruises for scuba divers and snorkelers. The company has designed, built, and has been operating the first small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) live-aboard dive cruise vessel, the Nekton Pilot, for the past fourteen years. This vessel has captured the attention of a large segment of the growing live-aboard dive cruise industry.
Nekton features cruises to exotic, less frequented locations allowing its passengers to participate in water sports featuring, but not limited to, scuba diving and snorkeling. Nekton received U.S. Coast Guard plan approval for the vessel in October 1991 making Nekton's SWATH the second vessel of its kind in the world to receive Coast Guard approval. Construction of the ship began in February of 1993, and was completed in February of 1994. The Nekton Pilot has been operating successfully out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, George Town, Bahamas and Belize, Central America since May of 1994.
The success of the Nekton Pilot was phenomenal and beginning in 1996 the Company began looking for a location to build a fleet of Nekton Swath vessels. In 1998 a sister company, Gulf County Shipbuilding, Inc was founded on 25 acres of land in the town of Port St. Joe in the Florida Panhandle near Panama City and Appalachicola. For two years the unimproved timber land was transformed into a modern, cost effective shipyard expressly designed for the construction of Nekton SWATH vessels.
The second Nekton vessel started construction in 2000 and was delivered in the fall of 2001. 9-11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2003 economic slowdown, hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 and rising fuel costs have slowed down the construction of a third Nekton SWATH Dive Cruise vessel. However the industry is resurging today and Nekton is capitalizing on the new growth with a more flexible Franchise program versus traditional financing and organic growth.
The people of Nekton Diving Cruises, LLC. invite you to first, enjoy pursuing this website, and, second, join us for a week long scuba cruise to dream, dive & discover.