Hawaii Superferry confronts winter of discontent on seas
— -- When high surf and rudder cracks forced the Hawaii Superferry to scuttle trips between Oahu and Maui for the fifth day in a row this week, it was the latest wave in what has been a sea of troubles for the high-speed catamaran.
With a capacity of 866 passengers and more than 200 cars and trucks, the $85 million, U.S.-built Alakai — Hawaiian for "ocean path" — was designed as a modern reincarnation of the double-hulled Polynesian canoes that once plied the Hawaiian chain. Intended to zip residents, tourists and local business owners and their wares on daily crossings from Honolulu to Maui and Kauai (a second vessel is planned for Big Island service in 2009), the Alakai was touted as a scenic, fuel-efficient alternative to inter-island flights.
But the Alakai faced protesters and legal challenges long before it arrived in Hawaii last summer. Environmentalists, worried about the effect on migrating humpback whales and the potential for transporting invasive species, argued that the ferry's owners needed to file an environmental impact statement before launching service. Residents on Maui and Kauai, already anxious about a surge in tourist arrivals and new development, voiced concerns about increased traffic congestion and crowding of island parks and beaches.
After several months of on-again, off-again drama — including a blockade of Kauai's Nawiliwili harbor by opponents on surfboards and outrigger canoes and intervention by the Hawaiian Legislature and governor to keep the ferry going while it completes an environmental review — the Alakai started offering one daily round trip between Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, in mid-December. Kauai service was suspended indefinitely, and a planned second daily trip to Maui was postponed when Maui's mayor complained that local officials weren't consulted.
Despite computer-controlled stabilizers and other features designed to smooth the 349-foot-long Alakai's ride, rough winter seas have forced the Superferry to cancel trips 11 days in less than two months. That's far more than the 2% cancellation rate officials had planned, and roiling conditions have helped earn the vessel a nickname: "the barf barge."
