Post by ferryfast admin on Nov 23, 2007 13:03:53 GMT -5
Harbors chief: Superferry can handle surge
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
MAUI NEWS
www.mauinews.com/news/2007/11/22/01harc1122.html
KAHULUI – When the Superferry docking barge broke one of its mooring lines on Nov. 14, it was the second time in about a month that had happened.
State Harbors Director Mike Formby said Wednesday that it probably wouldn’t have happened the second time if the injunction against ferry operations hadn’t still been in place.
He said an interim mooring solution to answer Kahului Harbor’s surge problem will be in place before ferry service resumes a week from Saturday.
A permanent solution is being studied.
Hawaii Superferry officials could not be reached to comment about how ocean swells in the harbor will affect their operations.
After the first break in a wire cable – which happened when swells were not affecting the harbor – additional “soft” mooring lines were installed as a backup.
Soft lines – in other words, ropes – worked, said Formby. With more give than wire cables or chains, they snubbed the barge, so that it never got entirely free from the pier. Two tugs eventually corralled the barge and shifted its berth.
Formby said that ordinarily Superferry workers would have taken steps to preserve the moorings – perhaps by shifting the barge – when the surge began to cause trouble.
The state owns the barge, but Hawaii Superferry is required by its operating agreement to maintain it, which includes moving it when it becomes a danger to Pier 2.
However, when 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza enjoined the ferry from operating at Kahului Harbor, he also voided the operating agreement. Cardoza, responding to a new law, Act 2, had ruled on Nov. 14 that the injunction was dissolved and the operating agreement was no longer void.
His ruling from the bench came right before the cable snapped, but his decision was not yet written up and signed, and Superferry employees were not authorized to act to shift the barge’s berth.
Once the cable snapped, Harbors Division employees and crews of two privately-owned tugs took measures to restrain the barge. Later it was shifted to berth 2B, which usually is less affected by swells.
Formby said he is confident that in the future, Superferry employees will be able to keep the barge from breaking loose.
When the cable broke, a bollard also was sheared off. By Dec. 1, there will be more mooring lines and more bollards to attach them to, Formby said.
A winch arrangement will allow the barge to be eased away from the pier, except when the ferry is in port, when it will be snugged up in order to marry the ramps of the two vessels.
The fact that the barge broke a line in a small swell raises the question of how big a swell the barge-ferry-pier system can manage during loading and unloading.
Also, how much reliance can be placed on forecasts of swells and surge in Kahului.
Formby said the decision on when the ferry can sail safely to Kahului is for Superferry to determine.
“It’s the captain’s call,” he said.
Superferry officials have said from the start that there would be days when the weather would prevent sailing.
Swells in the harbor are mostly independent of local weather. The troublesome ones typically originate in distant winter storms far to the north of Hawaii. In addition to more mooring cables and bollards, the state is planning to place more rubber fenders (old tires from construction equipment) to protect the pier.
When the barge was not fully under control, it banged a dent in its side, but the damage will not affect its operation, Formby said.
State engineers also are looking at a long-term solution for a stable mooring system, and they were meeting with Coast Guard officers Wednesday.
The Coast Guard is not responsible for approving the mooring arrangements, because as a semi-permanently fixed piece of equipment, the barge is not classed with moving vessels.
However, the state has asked the Coast Guard for advice.
Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.