Austal Ferries Auctioned
The super ferries HUAKI and ALAKAI were auctioned off on the steps of U.S. District Court in Norfolk, VA yesterday.
Following the bankruptcy filing by Hawaii Superferry Inc., a judge ruled that the owners could abandon the two super ferries to lenders back in 2009. This past May, the US Federal Government sued to get title of the two vessels. Both were auctioned by U.S. Marshals Service yesterday and bought by the U.S. Maritime Administration for US$25 million each.
A Maritime Administration spokesperson said that there may a possible deal involving the US Navy, which expressed interest in the ferries last year.
ALAKAI, the US-built, twin hulled, 107 meter ferry, had traveled from her builders at Mobile, AL, (via Long Beach, CA) to Hawaii to launch a new interisland service in June 2007. Work on the second Austal-built ferry, (also intended to ferry passengers and cars between Oahu and the Big Island) was halted in October 2008, as a result of the poor economy. However, the route was subsequently halted by the courts. Hawai’i’s Supreme Court ruled that a law that had allowed ALAKAI to operate pending an environmental review was unconstitutional. ALAKAI (which means “Ocean Path”) had shuttled passengers and cars between Oahu and Maui for more than a year and then departed the islands March 28, 2009 for a three week return voyage to Mobile, Alabama for lay up.
In January 2010 ALAKAI, with her unique speed and combined cargo and passenger capability, was sent to Haiti for earthquake relief operations.
For now, the two ships remain tied up at Lambert’s Point Docks, Norfolk, VA.
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What a shame the environmental blowhards stopped these ferries in Hawaii. I go to Hawaii couple times a year because it’s convenient and I love the place. These were great way to get around. Alas, they are no more because of the uber-enthusiastic nuts.
As a 27 year Maui resident, I loved the Hawaii Superferry, and although I am no “environmental blowhard”, it was illegally pushed into operations by the current governor and unfortunately for us that used it and loved it, the operations were rightfully terminated.
Hawaii politics are seriously messed up. I can not believe that a ferry does more enviromental harm than forcing everyone into a plane to get island to island.
John, how was ridership when you were aboard? I seem to recall that after initial high capacity due to the novelty factor, passenger counts were already declining by the time the service ceased.
I wonder if a basic monohull service would work? Up here in the Northeast, The Cat Ferry has stopped its high-speed wavepiercer service. It’s expected that a conventional ferry will probably take its place next season.
Ultimately it really wasn’t environmental nuts that stopped the Hawaii service, but a bad attempt at circumventing a law on the books. They could have done an environmental impact report as required and been in service legally. It would only have cost them time and some money (a lot less than was lost on this deal).
Agreed-they got themselves into this mess. It wasn’t the environuts (full disclosure-I am one myself) but the anti-environuts that were responsible.
In any event, it is interesting to see that Navy continuing their trials with new ships. They have a genuine interest in this concept, and have operated high speed ferries in the past (quite a number actually.) It will be interesting to see where this leads to. They have been working on the Joint High Speed Vessel, but I don’t know the status of that project. And of course, USS Independence is based on a ferry hull, perhaps this indicates a leaning towards the Austal design for the LCS program?
I agree when you buy vessels that expensive you dont cut corners a enviromental impact report would have stopped this from happening.
A big lapse in due dilegence I have worked on plenty of ferries and they also would have been quite expensive to run, a monohull would have taken a lot longer at 25 knots instead of 40 but more cost effective and enviromentally friendly and been able to absorb fuel increases a lot better and keep fares low for a long time.
Its a dam shame the enviromental nuts didnt look at the fact planes are a lot worse than ferries enviromentally they certainly did esculate the problem they might as well go boycott the airlines they are way worse.