Wednesday, January 30, 2008

 

Day 5 and counting...


by Larry Geller

 
Update: KGMB tonight reported that the Superferry also has rudder problems. Link includes video. The Molokai Advertiser, the source for KGMB's coverage, also reported on the fallacy of night vision glasses in protecting whales should the Superferry resume nighttime trips.
 

j0236367 I thought I was losing count, but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday comes to five days canceled....

My sympathies if your car is still on the wrong island.

No Thursday Either

The Advertiser ran what looks like a Superferry announcement in its breaking news this morning: Hawaii Superferry voyages canceled again today. Wouldn't it be nice if they reported on the forest, not just the one tree? And the line about "special rental car rates are available for impacted passengers" should be tested. The 5% discount doesn't seem very "special" to me, and I wonder if it could be beat by checking one of the on-line discount travel sites. C'mon, Superferry, give 50% off at least.

Puhleez don't just tell me about the special rental car rates every day. Give me some real news. Remember when there were special sessions of the Legislature? This is a big deal!

Part of the big picture is that passengers have been inconvenienced for five days so far. Are there cars stranded? Is produce intended for Oahu markets rotting or thrown out? Is anyone unhappy?

The other part of the big picture I'd like to see (and I know I could do this myself, but this is only a blog) is a calendar with canceled days Xd off in red, or something like that. The days canceled for barge repair count also, you know. That would be an interesting graphic to print.

I know that the ferry company has not taken up my suggestion to turn the ship into a floating restaurant anchored in port. Pity. It's been tied up on Oahu all this time. We could have partied! A special few government officials might be invited to dine at the Captain's Table.

At least, they could have offered discount day parking or shown movies or something. Why not Sunset on the Ferry instead of on the beach, when it's just sitting there doing nothing anyway?



Comments:

Wow, I like what the Molokai Advertiser is doing on this. Aloha, Makaala Mauibrad
 


The real story here is that HSf tried to hide the fact of the broken rudder on their brand new boat further inconveniencing their customers by deception, blaming it on the weather.

And what does the fact that rudder break mean for the dependability safety and the barf factor... and the use of this type of boat by the military as Joan Conrow reported.

The Superferry story had been “Capitol reporter” Derrick DePledge's beat at the Advertiser so now that the lege is in session there appears to be no one and they just run the HSf press releases practically verbatim. And it’s only going to get worse with Gannett’s cuts.
 


Yeah, Andy, I agree, why say it's weather when it's really a broken auxillary rudder? Why try to hide a broken auxillary rudder? How did it break anyway?

And yes, this does call into question its seaworthiness under stressful conditions.

It seems to me this ship has more difficulty with wind as opposed to waves. I have noticed the profile of these Austal ships looks much less aerodynamic than do the comparable Incat ships. Maybe that would have something to do with why the Swift passed its stressful seatrials and yet this boxy vessel seems to catch the wind a little more when headed north in the channels going into the wind.

Aloha, Brad
 

Post a Comment

Requiring those Captcha codes at least temporarily, in the hopes that it quells the flood of comment spam I've been receiving.





<< Home

This 

page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Newer›  ‹Older