. . . . but just a small one.
A friend ~ who lives in Thailand, I am in Canada right now ~ recently wrote telling me that he had a rumour that there would soon be another try at establishing a ferry service across the Gulf from Pattaya to Hua Hin (and return of course). This would turn a 5-7 hour car drive (or bus, or train) into a 3 hour boat ride.
I have no idea whether this will actually come about, but am keeping my fingers crossed. We have a number of good friends who seemingly (and happily) are into regular once-a-year excursions from Pattaya to our town, so such a service would be a terrific help. It seems like such a natural to me really . . . even if one is not specifically going to Hua Hin, it opens up the whole south coast to being much less of a chore: the drive from Pattaya, through Bangkok, then until one gets as far as Petchburi is really an ugly mess.
Such a ferry service has been tried before, but always a failure. Hope that's not putting on too much bad karma to a potentially good concept.