Molokai ferry
operation draws
only one bid

The company says it
still needs more help to run
a daily service to Maui

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Businesswoman Patricia Puaa hopes a Molokai-Maui ferry will resume but remains cautious about whether the state will be able to attract an operator.

"If it comes back, it's going to help us big time. We're dying without it," said Puaa, vice president of Molokai Off-Road Tours & Taxi.

While few doubt the benefits of a ferry for Molokai, where unemployment was at 12 percent in April, many doubt whether the state can lure a successful operator under its current proposal.

Only one business, Dream Cruises Inc., applied by yesterday's deadline.

Frank Alexich, Dream Cruises general manager, said the company needed more financial assistance than outlined in the proposal.

State officials are reviewing Dream Cruises's application to determine whether it qualifies to become the ferry operator. A decision is expected within two weeks, said state boating official David Parsons.

Dream Cruises has about 35 employees and operates two ships out of Kewalo Basin, running mainly recreational and dinner cruises.

Under the proposal, the operator would receive $50,000 for start-up costs and be exempt from paying 2 percent of its gross revenues to the state for use of Lahaina Harbor.

The proposal requires an operator to make two round trips a day, departing no later than 6 a.m. from Kaunakakai and arriving no later than 7:30 a.m. at Lahaina Harbor.

The ferry is required to depart from Lahaina no earlier than 5 p.m. and to arrive in Kaunakakai no later than 6:30 p.m.

Alexich said the company is seeking help in other ways, including a commitment from business associations to promote tourism on Molokai. He said the ship would also operate cruises during nonferry hours.

"We would need to sit down with the state and figure out how things fit together," he said. "There needs to be other sources of funding."

Sea Link of Hawaii, former ferry operator, did not apply because the state's proposa wasn't economically feasible, president David Jung said.

Jung said that even when the company received some $330,000 a year in state subsidies, it was making no profit.

The service was halted after the subsidy was terminated by Gov. Ben Cayetano.

"I think it would be very difficult to survive financially," Jung said.

"If Dream Cruises can do it, more power to it."

Steven Loui, president of Pacific Marine, said his business didn't apply but is interested in operating the ferry system.

Loui said his company is developing a hydrofoil for the service and is about a year away from completion.

"Sometimes you can have the greatest route, but if you don't have the right vessel, it's not going to work," Loui said.

Many Molokai businesses say their revenues decreased when the ferry service stopped in October 1996.

Puaa said she was forced to reduce her fleet of tourist buses and vans from 13 to four.

Roy M. Horner, general manager of the Molokai Mule Ride, said his company lost from nine to 12 customers a week.

Former Molokai High School Athletic Director Kurtis Saiki said the absence of a ferry increased travel costs by 200 percent, or about $50,000.

He said Cayetano gave $25,000 in extra funds for the travel and the community raised the remainder.

Several Molokai residents have been forced to live on Maui and return to their home on their days off.

For Trinidad, 48, the absence of a ferry has forced her to live five days a week in an apartment in west Maui. On her two days off, she flies home to be with her husband.

Trinidad says she misses the daily conversation at the dinner table and making sure "everything is OK" with her family.

"Long-distance telephone calls cost a lot," she said.