INDEX - HAWAII TRANSPORTATION

www.islandbreath.org ID# 07-0911


SUBJECT: HAWAII SUPERFERRY

SOURCE: DICK MAYER dickmayer@earthlink.net

POSTED: 25 MAY 2007 - 8:00am HST

Tests Delay Superferry Launch

First of two Hawaii Superferies docked in Mobile, Alabama after sea trials

by Jim Mendoza on 24 May 2007 on KGMB News

The Hawaii Superferry Web site used to have a ticker on its title page. It counted down the days and hours to the company's July launch. Now the slogan says service starts some time this summer.

"We want everybody to feel comfortable that this is a very, very safe ship," said Superferry president and CEO John Garibaldi.

By all appearances, the vessel is sea worthy right now. It breezed through ocean trials in April. But since it's a "fast moving ferry," the ship is subject to the U.S. Coast Guard's high speed code.

Everything on board is being inspected more than once.

"They started when the vessel started construction, looking at every weld, looking at the design, the architecture, the drawings," Garibaldi said.

The double-hulled catamaran is still docked at the Austal shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, where it was built.

When it's released, it will take three weeks to a month for the ferry to sail through the Panama Canal, stop off the west coast, then cross the Pacific to Honolulu harbor. Once it's here, there will be more tests in island waters.

"We have a lot of focus on training of our employees just to make sure that everyone has the safety of our passengers at the top of their minds," Garibaldi said.

Garibaldi said the Superferry could begin service in August. When it's rolling, it will transport people and their automobiles between Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

Some environmentalists and state lawmakers have voiced objection to the Superferry startup. But it has been built and it will come here, just not on the timetable everyone expected.


see also
Island Breath: Still No Superferry EIS 3/31/2007
Island Breath: Superferry EIS Effort 3/25/2007
Island Breath: Superferry EIS Bill hearings 2/26/2007
Island Breath: Superferry Promotion 2/24/2007
Island Breath: Superferry Launched 1/28/2007
Island Breath: Superferry in Trouble
12/12/2006
Island Breath: Superferry Reference
11/6/2006
Island Breath: Superferry Resistance
11/1/2006
Island Breath: Superferry & Military
10/13/2006
Island Breath: Superferry History
10/3/2006
Island Breath: Stop the Superferry
8/29/2006
Island Breath: Superferry Meetings
8/13/2006
Island Breath: Superferry Redux
6/23/2006
Island Breath: Superferry Problems
11/14/2004


www.islandbreath.org

pau