This will open the door to a lot of dive opportunities

[justleesa]

yup, they will lose....Think of the big, local, low to middle income O'hanas...they can visit each other for a lot less....and they will, never seen such travel happy people.

 

[friscuba]

I don't think the airlines are really going to be hurt all that much if any. Check this out http://www.enterprisehonolulu.com/html/pdf/Hawaii Super Legislative testimony 2005.pdf It's the report to the Governor from back in July of '04. At the time there were roughly 41,600 passengers traveling interisland daily. I suspect it's more now.

The ferries could make a dent initially, but I'd find it hard not to believe that the families justleesa mentioned won't travel more often than they do now. I know I will. I suspect there will be lots more travel among local residents. I know people living in Kona who've been to Oahu a couple times in thier life. That'll likely change.

I haven't been to one of the other islands for anything more than to catch a plane to the mainland in almost 3 years. I can pretty much guarantee when the ferries are fully operable I'll be in Oahu 2-3 times a year at least for an overnighter. I just wish they had a direct leg between the Big Island and Maui.

It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out. I think the biggest pain residents will see will be if there are infrastructure changes which need to occur to handle the ferries. I know the "highway", which is just a 2 lane road, on the west side of the Big Island will have a heck of a time handling a couple hundred more cars entering it all at once.

 

[okamiotoko2004]

The Navy still has a couple of these in operation and one of them makes regular stops here in Pearl Harbor and are very successful. These ships are nice, fast and well thought out. They do 50+ knots and ride like a dream with their twin hull and turbo jet propulsion. I took a tour of the one of Navy's not too long ago. Also I believe Maine runs one to Canada and back and Hong Kong and Singapore have one also running last time I was about a year ago.
They can reconfigure the cargo bays to suit and it is huge. Good stuff can't wait for them to start running the islands. As long as politics don't manaage to screw it up.

 

[Tom Winters]

The Navy has hydrofoils again? They decommisioned the entire Pegasus class in 1993. I thought they were going to stick with SWATH and special hulls after that, but maybe they recommisioned something. The foils had to be towed wherever they were going to be operated which got old fast in transoceanic crossings.
I'm not sure if the hydrofoils will have much impact on interisland freight. I used Young Brothers to ship stuff around, and they were even cheaper than the railroads for shipping bulk freight. Great guys there too.
I still can't picture any hydrofoil staying in service after running the Penguin Banks between Oahu and Molokai on the way to Maui every day. Because of the relative shallowness - the Banks come up from the abyss to 200-300 feet, they have some of the most consistently rough seas in the world. In all my passages to Molokai, I had one trip where it was smooth. Otherwise it was 8 knots getting slammed the whole way.
Before they became dive sites off Oahu, I used to fly Mid Pacific airlines interisland all the time there. They were turboprops, but the fares were $25 to $30 depending on where you were flying - much cheaper than Aloha and Hawaiian. They sold ticket books of 6, and I got some occasionally on sale for as low as $150.
Of course, it did add 10 minutes to the flight time to Kauai...

 

[justleesa]

Before they became dive sites off Oahu, I used to fly Mid Pacific airlines ...

What happened?

 

[chepar]

I was wondering what the status of the ferry was. It was big news a while back, but since then, I haven't really heard anything about it.

I typically only travel interisland for long weekend type trips. I haven't checked out the website yet, but I'm wondering if the travel time on the ferry will be much different than the entire airport check in and flight time with the airlines.

 

[justleesa]

There will be check in and loading time for the ferry too I'm sure. I'm thinking, you won't be faster, but cheaper.

 

[Tom Winters]

What happened?

Senator Dan (not Akaka) was friendlier towards Aloha and Hawaiian. Mid Pac and Discovery couldn't get permanent gates at HNL.

 

[okamiotoko2004]

The Navy is using the same design as these will be albeit with some modifications. There are two test platforms ones for different gadgits and there is another one that is classified.
The draft on these boats is very shallow once up to speed they more or less glide across the water. The one that comes here makes the transit in allot less time than most ships. The new propulsion on these ships make them a smooth and fast ride. Not sure if the Navy is going to keep them or not or just using them for future hull and propulsion designs.

 

[www.scubamazing.com]

I just got pointed to this post from another. I'm so excited at this news! I've checked the website, but if any new news comes up, I wanted to suggest someone post it.

thanks,