The three 122.5m and 42 knot capable PacifiCats – PACIFICAT DISCOVERY, PACIFICAT EXPLORER and PACIFICAT VOYAGER – were built between 1996 and 2000 by the BC Ferries subsidiary Catamaran Ferries International in North Vancouver in a move by the ferry operator to improve ferry services between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, carrying 1,000 passengers and 250 vehicles at a service speed of 35 knots.

Only the first of the three fast ferries entered service – PACIFICAT DISCOVERY and PACIFICAT EXPLORER – running between Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver and Departure Bay, Nanaimo, before the plug was pulled on the service due to costs and safety issues.

All three vessels were then acquired by US company Washington Marine Group for USD 13 million in 2003, who then sold them to the United Arab Emirates-based luxury yacht builder Abu Dhabi MAR in 2009. All three sisterships then turned up in the Egyptian port of Alexandria in 2022, under lay-up.

In 2025 a group from the US were in serious discussions with the PacifiCats owners to acquire them and convert all three fast ferries into civilian hospital ships.

With this project failing to materials, all three ferries are now being scrapped/recycled in the two Egyptian ports of Abuqir (20km east of Alexandria) and Idku (40km east of Alexandria) by a company called Fast Marine Technology (FMT) for its client International Technology for Chemical Industries.

The PacifiCats were designed by Australia's Philip Hercus and Canada's Robert Allan Ltd, of Vancouver.

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