LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which  distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming.  (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

M/V Fairweather Gets Premature Farewell

By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Chances are good if your picture is perfected in frosting on a tasty cake you are either ‘A,’ going on a wonderful honeymoon vacation or, ‘B,’ heading off into a retirement voyage and probably not one you had hoped for.
    For the M/V Fairweather, it was the latter last week as the Alaska Marine Highway vessel made its regular run from Skagway and Haines to Juneau.
    The captain ceremonially cut the cake in the Fairweather lounge, and made an announcement that seemed to indicate the vessel was being retired, taking with it the service it has provided to Southeast Alaska communities.

The Alaska State Ferry M/V Fairweather is pictured in Sitka in May 2004, shortly after its launch.
(Sentinel file photo)


    Following up on that unexpected development the Sentinel contacted the head office of the ferry system in Ketchikan.
    “Let me start by saying there have been no decisions yet as to what we are going to do with the Fairweather,” said Capt. John Falvey, AMS general manager.  “The cake situation was something management here was not aware of. It was something that the captain took upon himself to do with his own funding. There were no state funds that went in to that. There may be a lot of assumptions with what is going to happen with things here at the marine highway. As we sit right now, with the Fairweather, nothing is changed.”
    Falvey said the Fairweather ran all summer in Lynn Canal, and will go to Prince William Sound until the end of November, as it did last year, connecting Cordova, Whittier and Valdez.
    “It’s going to come back and go into a layup until May 1, as scheduled,” Falvey said. “And between now and May 1, working with the Southeast Reform Project, and the fact that we have two brand new ships coming in, we have static budgets as far as we know – you can’t bring two $300 million ships in without having some cause and effect.”
    Which means that it’s possible that the second of the system’s two fast ferries may be laid up.
According to the website www.amhsreform.com, the steering committee of the AMHS Reform Project is pursuing legislation to transition the ferry system to a state-owned public corporation in hopes of cutting costs, providing essential marine transportation services, connecting coastal communities with economic and service hubs, and supporting the overall transportation needs of the state.
    A top priority of the House Transportation Committee in the upcoming legislative session in Juneau is legislation to turn the Alaska Marine Highway System from a subset of the state Department of Transportation into a semi-independent public corporation.
    House Bill 412, which would authorize the change, received unanimous support from the House Transportation Committee in the last session.
    “Regardless of what captains might think, we have not made any decisions yet on the future of the Fairweather,” Falvey said.
    He said multiple AMHS ships will be running in Lynn Canal this winter, including the Columbia, Kennicot, LeConte and Malaspina on a schedule working around planned overhauls for each ship.
    “That (cake ceremony) may have been a little premature,” Falvey said. “We were not aware it was going to happen. I am not going to discuss that any further, that was something that happened. People assume things, maybe incorrectly.”
    Falvey said as new ships come in adjustments are made.
    “Via elimination, via reducing service from some ships,” he said. “It’s all about service and costs to run ships, and it’s all about money. So we have a lot of decisions to make and we have not made a decision on the Fairweather yet. That was premature on the cake yet.”
Falvey acknowledged that Alaskans like the opportunity to say goodbye to vessels as they pass through ports for the final time, mentioning the AMHS bagpipe ceremony for the M/V Taku.
    “We are not in goodbye mode yet,” he said. “When we do it we will do it the right way. I don’t want to talk about what the captain did, those are personnel issues. No state funds were used. The captain used his own money, I think there were two cakes actually. We heard about it after the fact here at the headquarters building.”
    Falvey said the AMHS is working closely with the reform project and the Southeast Conference and have some time until May 1 comes on the horizon to decide what the fleet mix is going to be.
    They are trying to plan next summer’s schedule beginning with that date and under a tight budget that starts July 1 for the fiscal year.
Falvey said in past years when money was available, schedules could be set and if the budget was shortened the service would be reduced in the winter and recover that cost.
    “We are cut so thin now with schedules we don’t have a whole lot of leeway to save ourselves,” Falvey said. “We have to wait longer than we used to wait to get those summer schedules out.”
    Falvey hopes the summer schedules are out by Christmas.
    The 408-foot M/V Matanuska (built 1963) has been in an extensive repowering and rebuilding project at the Vigor Shipyard in Portland, Oregon, since November 2017 and is expected back into service July 1, 2019. The vessel has received a major rebuild of the engine room.
“Everything through to the propellers, from the rudders and shafts,” Falvey said.
    It’s also receiving a mandated Coast Guard SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) conversion for running in Canadian waters, something that was grandfathered in to earlier contracts since the AMHS docks in Prince Rupert.
    Falvey said the 418-foot M/V Columbia (built 1974) received new engines three years ago, the 382-foot M/V Kennicott (1998) is still fairly new and the 408-foot M/V Malaspina’s (1963) engines are in pretty good shape.
    “They are original,” he said. “We do have to be thinking ‘what are we going to do with the Mal?’ Right now we are focusing on the Matanuska as a SOLAS ship and maintaining service down to Prince Rupert.”
    He said the 235-foot M/V LeConte (1974) is still fine running the villages and will work Lynn Canal when needed.
    The Marine Highway’s second fast ferry, the 235-foot M/V Chenega (2005), sits at Ketchikan’s Ward Cove where it has been laid up since 2015, when it was found too expensive to operate. The 352-foot M/V Taku (1963) was sold and scrapped last year. The 181-foot Lituya (2004) runs between Ketchikan and Metlakatla, and the 235-foot Aurora (1977) runs in Southcentral and Prince William Sound.
    The 296-foot M/V Tustumena (1964) is also still operational in the Southwest and Central Gulf. The AMHS is ready to build a new replacement ship for $240-million, but the project, and Federal Highways money, is held up in Washington, D.C., as the “Buy American Waivers” are on hold. Falvey said 23 line items for the new build, roughly $12.7 million, can’t be acquired in the United States and the waivers to buy them in Europe can’t be secured.
    The 280-foot M/V Tazlina, the first of two Alaska class “day boat” ferries being built by the Vigor yard in Ketchikan, was christened August 11.
    “We will own the boat in a month or so,” Falvey said. “We have been out on one sea trial on it … and will be taking it out to sea again in a few weeks.”
    The boat is expected to be put on the Lynn Canal run starting May 1, 2019.
    The second of the two new day boats, the 280-foot M/V Hubbard, is expected to be delivered January or February 2019.
    “What we will hypothetically do is run one of them from Juneau to Haines and the other from Haines to Skagway,” Falvey said. “That is kind of what we are thinking. That is subject to change as we look at our fleet mix and fast ferries and all of that over the winter.”
    Falvey noted that AMHS employees are passionate, take good care of customers, receive good public review, and that headquarters’ job is too support those crews.
    “They take care of our passengers,” he said. “These are really floating hotels.”
    As for service to Alaskans, Falvey said they are the AMHS’ main staple, but the system also generates a lot of revenue with tourists during the summer.
    “It’s a mix, but our loyalty is to the Alaskan citizens, that’s for sure,” he said. “That’s our bread and butter.”
    Just not cake yet.

 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.

50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.

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