Ferry links LAHAINA >> A 149-passenger yacht plans to begin ferry service between Molokai and Maui on May 7, lifting hopes of more jobs for Friendly Isle residents facing the state's highest unemployment rate.
Maui, Molokai
Molokai residents hope the
ferry brings job opportunitiesBy Gary T. Kubota
Star-BulletinThe vessel Molokai Princess, operated by Sea Link of Hawaii, passed inspection by the Coast Guard yesterday.
"This has been a long time coming, and we've all been pulling hard to make this happen," Sea Link President David Jung said.
State labor official Alberta Napoleon-Lucas said at least 100 people on Molokai have indicated they are interested in finding a job in West Maui, if ferry travel is feasible.
"We've been getting inquiries here and there," she said.
Patricia Pua, vice president of Molokai Off-Road Tours and Taxi, said she is looking forward to the potential visitor traffic generated by the ferry service.
"I'm excited. It's going to help us a lot," she said.
Pua said her business activity, which caters to day tours on Molokai, decreased by 50 percent when a previous ferry service stopped in October 1996.
"That was our main contract," she said.
Molokai's unemployment rate was 15.4 percent in February, jumping by more than 100 percent since December.
The increase in the jobless rate followed the shutdown of the Kaluakoi Hotel & Golf Club on Jan. 3 and layoff of 99 employees.
The Molokai Princess ferry schedule from Mondays through Saturdays calls for the vessel to depart Kaunakakai at 6 a.m. and arrive at Lahaina Harbor at 7:15 a.m. The return trip would leave at 5:15 p.m. and arrive at 6:30 p.m.
On Sundays the ferry is scheduled to depart Lahaina Harbor at 7:30 a.m. and arrive on Molokai at 8:45 a.m. The return voyage departs Molokai at 3:30 p.m. and arrives in Lahaina at 4:45 p.m.
The company plans to charge $15 round trip for Molokai commuters who are full-time employees working on Maui and $40 one way for other adults.
Jung said under the program offering $15 round trips for commuters, the employer would pay for ferry tickets.
Children will be charged $20 one way.
Jung shut down his previous ferry service in 1996 after Gov. Ben Cayetano eliminated an annual $300,000 subsidy for ferrying Molokai residents to work in Lahaina. The Molokai Princess was scheduled to begin service in mid-March. The date was pushed back because of foul weather delaying the refitting of the vessel on the U.S. mainland and an engine breakdown last month during speed trials in Hawaii.
The yacht is about 100 feet long and is expected to cruise at about 21 miles an hour.
It includes two air-conditioned cabins and an open-air observation deck.
Maui County
