Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

Everyone -- or damned near everyone -- here in Hawaii who fishes or who has a boat already knows that information. Is it Breaking News in Seattle?

Just to clarify my comment there... posters and flyers regarding whales can be found at every fuel dock, marina office and yacht club, on bulletin boards on marina docks and in marine supply stores, etc., plus public service ads in every Hawaii boating publication, etc etc etc. You basically can't get anywhere near a boat without seeing at least one poster/flyer and usually more than one.

Hmmm....what happens if the whale has an "Ooooooo....SHINEY!! Must get the SHINEY!" moment and charges the boat?

The two cool links you gave involved very small boats of 18' and 27'. Such occurances are not at all unusual. Usually the cause of a whale attack is if a boat gets between a mother whale and her calf.
There are also many instances of whales rubbing against a boat, as opposed to attacking it. When it happens to powerboats this is usually the whale trying to rub off some of the barnacles on their body, but when it happens to sailboats with deep fin keels, it's a... sexual issue. The female whales mistake the keel for an (ahem) aroused male organ. See the photo below.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

From the SB:

Rep. Alex Sonson (D, Pearl City-Waipahu) said he worries about passing a law clearly for one business. "I am troubled, as are a lot of my colleagues -- we might be acting at the behest of a single company. ... Just because a majority of the people want it doesn't mean it is right," Sonson said.

Hmmm...somehow I think that last statement by Sonson may come back and bite him.

And then from the same article:

In the Senate, even Sen. Brian Taniguchi, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which shepherded the bill through the Senate, said he did not like it.

"Initially, I was opposed to a special session to help a company and a governor who had been intent on circumventing what they considered an inconvenience," Taniguchi said

So Taniguchi doesn't like what he was initially opposed to...doesn't that make him a supporter then? He singles out Lingle for "circumventing" an inconvenience but votes in favor of that act of circumvention?

What is the problem with these guys? They vote in favor for something they don't like? If they don't like it they should vote against it. Basically it sends out the message that they don't like what their constituents want. Not a good thing for a legislator to be saying in light of public opinion.

Yes I do believe the HSF position that legislators take and remark upon will be decisive in their next bid for re-election.

[TuNnL]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

At best, "outer island" residents seem basically split on the Superferry question. Hell, basic math would seem to suggest that even a unanimous "outer island" position on any issue would not add up to a majority on anything.

You misunderstood me. When I said silent majority, I was referring to the majority of neighbor islanders (not majority of the state, which is apparently the way you interpreted it). And yes, they are split on the issue, but the point is: more of them are against the Superferry wheeling-and-dealing than are for it.

Anyway, as long as we’re on the subject of clarification, I’m interested to know what exactly you believe the “Superferry question” is. I’m sure if you asked three different people at random, you would get three different answers.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

What is the problem with these guys? They vote in favor for something they don't like? If they don't like it they should vote against it.

No worry watanabe. While many politicians have the changing color skin (See Hillary Clinton in the debate last night), in Hawaii, its genetic. This is just another of Hawaii's finest "leaders". Taniguchi and Say and the rest will all win their reelections in landslides.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

What is the problem with these guys?

They are politicians. What else needs be said? The first fule of politics is "CYA."

Yes I do believe the HSF position that legislators take and remark upon will be decisive in their next bid for re-election.

As well it should. Politicians need to be held accountable for their decisions and actions come election time, and I mean that in a very broad sense.

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

There's a very interesting letter in today's Advertiser:

I was fortunate to drive the Boeing Jetfoil as a Seaflite officer from 1976 to 1978. The Seaflite boat had a length of 90 feet and was powered by two gas turbines with connecting waterjets. Cruising speed foilborne was 45 knots, (52 mph) slightly faster than the Superferry.
Seaflite had three boats and traveled to all major Hawaiian islands. Usually each boat made two trips per day and all boats averaged four to five trips per day. Payload was up to 190 passengers.
During whale season we always used 2 to 3 observers including a skipper and first officer for whale spotting. We did see many humpback whales, particularly in the whale sanctuary areas. When we spotted one we would alter course as necessary to avoid a whale or whale groups and give them a safe clearance. I would point out that we were not required to and did not alter our usual island route for whale avoidance. We very seldom reduced our cruising speed of 45 knots while proceeding through whale sanctuaries.
(...)
Considering Seaflite's record, it's a real stretch that environmental extremists' main issue with the Superferry seems to be a high risk of a whale strike.
To the best of my knowledge over a period of about four years of operation, Seaflite had no humpback whale strikes and in fact, Seaflite had very few if any close whale encounters.

SeaFlite had higher speeds, triple the number of daily trips, zero whale strikes in over four years.
Chicken Little is wrong. The sky is NOT falling.

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

With the fine levied against go!, one thing is for certain, even if go! stays, the airfare will go up and as most already predicted, the cheap ride is coming to an end. Taking that into consideration, the argument of the ferry being expensive will lose some bite.

[helen]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

SeaFlite had higher speeds, triple the number of daily trips, zero whale strikes in over four years.

If I remember right SeaFlite only operated during the day, I don't think they had night operations. Whereas the Kauai to Oahu run is at night but then again whales don't normally hang around the Kauai Channel.

[glossyp]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

We had dinner last night with a vendor to the dearly beloved's employer who was very disappointed that he wasn't able to take the HSF to Maui. He will be spending four days there on business and planned to ride the HSF, rent a car and then return on the ferry for his flight home. He thought the three hour journey to Maui would be relaxing and much more fun than flying. Just a brief story to illustrate that not everyone who wants to ride the ferry is a whacked Oahu resident hell bent on stealing or pillaging. And this note to my representative Sonson - your attitude has been noticed and will not be forgotten come election day.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

I think all the legislators who voted "with reservation" should be questioned further. Their stance is very passive-aggressive. In the case of the HSF issue, WR votes shouldn't have counted either way. I think the voters of Hawai'i deserved to know for sure which way their elected officials voted. Things are pretty screwed up if the politicians can't commit one way or the other. What are they afraid of? "yes", "but". ha.

SeaFlite kept breaking down constantly, as I recall. I wonder how often they actually did obtain the rated speeds? Also, there were fewer whales to hit in 1976 than there are today.

There's some interesting information contained on the Hawaii Highways website:

By the way, Hawaii DOT assigned Federal Aid Primary route numbers 6-10 to a network of ferry routes. These apparently were intended for a state-run auto ferry system the state had been noodling over throughout the 1960s and 1970s, not the short-lived SeaFlite passenger ferry system of the mid-1970s, which didn't always follow the FAP ferry routes. Here are the assigned FAP ferry routes, as of 1976 (from Hawaii DOT's Highway Systems Maps that year for all the islands), compared to the corresponding SeaFlite routes (per 1977 Hawaii Visitor Bureau maps):

Miulang

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

What was the estimated whale population in the 70s and what is it now?

Does anyone know what model were the Seaflite jetfoils? Since they sold them off to Hong Kong, I believe they still might be in service. Here's their fleet detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboJET

Did the Seaflite look like this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TurboJET.JPG

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

What was the estimated whale population in the 70s and what is it now?

Does anyone know what model were the Seaflite jetfoils? Since they sold them off to Hong Kong, I believe they still might be in service. Here's their fleet detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboJET

Did the Seaflite look like this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TurboJET.JPG

According to this paper, there were about 1,600 humpbacks in the 1977-80 seasons. According to this Star Bulletin story from last year about a whale strike, there were about 10,000 humpbacks in Hawaii, with an annual growth rate of about 7%. During the Maui hearings, I think I recall hearing that the humpbacks could be taken off the endangered species list when their numbers reach 12,000 or so.

Miulang

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

I think all the legislators who voted "with reservation" should be questioned further.

And that's something the citizens of Hawaii will need to decide.

In the case of the HSF issue, WR votes shouldn't have counted either way.

If/when you move to Hawaii, you're welcome to run for office and change how things are done here.

SeaFlite kept breaking down constantly, as I recall.

That is clearly one of the single most ridiculous comments ever posted on HT.
The Seaflite boats were over 30 years ago. What possible comparison can be made between them and boats built this year?
I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and guess that technology has improved just a wee bit in 30 years.
(And so have whale-counting capabilties.)

[helen]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

I think all the legislators who voted "with reservation" should be questioned further. Their stance is very passive-aggressive. In the case of the HSF issue, WR votes shouldn't have counted either way. I think the voters of Hawai'i deserved to know for sure which way their elected officials voted. Things are pretty screwed up if the politicians can't commit one way or the other. What are they afraid of? "yes", "but". ha.

The SuperFerry issue is an on-going minefield (if HawaiiThreads is an indication, this topic has generated at least 7 threads, with a total of 2,295+ responses since August 2004), some mines have already gone off and there are still other ones yet to encounter. So yeah, maybe the bulk of the citizens of this state are fence sitters, knowning no matter what happens you are going to shoot off your foot. Trouble is you don't know which foot is going to got shot, or you can miss and hit your kneecap or maybe you shoot of the other guy's foot.

So let the legislators do their job here, they could have done much worse by passing a bill to buy a private jet, even through the fallout from it wouldn't generate as much protesting as the SuperFerry has had so far.

Also, there were fewer whales to hit in 1976 than there are today.

You know what I find strange is the notion of this day and age that any US flagged ship hauling cargo and/or passengers are going out of their way to hit a whale. Sure you might have a collision between a whale and a ship now and then but to even suggest that a crew would risk fines and bad press to purposely hit a whale doesn't make any sense.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii Superferry - Chapter 7

It won't be over...until it's over.

Miulang