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HolidayCruise.jpg
The Active Ferry Employees Charitable Trust sponsors an annual Holiday Cruise for people with disabilities. The event is cancelled this year because of ferry maintenance issues. (WSDOT photo from last year's cruise)

State cancels annual holiday cruise for disabled people

December 13, 2012 @ 6:28 pm (Updated: 8:31 am - 12/14/12 )

The Washington State Department of Transportation is canceling an event that's become a holiday tradition for about 1,000 developmentally disabled people.

Since 1983, The Active Ferry Employees Charitable Trust has sponsored a holiday cruise for people with developmental disabilities.

Ferry system volunteers, Seafair pirates and Santa make the event memorable.

This year, it won't happen.

The 90-minute cruise around Elliot Bay aboard a ferry was set for Saturday, but passengers were told this week it is being called off.

There are too many ferries out of service for repairs and the vessel they were planning to use, the Tacoma, needs to be put back into regular service on December 15.

"It is with sadness that we cancel the holiday cruise," David Moseley, assistant secretary for the WSDOT said in a statement. "Given our reduced capacity with multiple vessels out of service, we need to return this large ferry to our system in order to serve our customers."

Three ferry vessels are expected to return to service in the next two weeks, but not in enough time to save the party.

The 202-car Tacoma, in for routine maintenance, is expected to return to service Friday night. That will be followed Monday by the return of the 90-car Sealth, now awaiting dry dock availability for weld repairs. The 144-car Hyak, also in for routine maintenance, is expected to be back on its route in late December following Coast Guard inspection.

Two other ferries, the 87-car Klahowya and the 188-car Walla Walla, are expected to return to service mid-January and spring 2013, respectively. The Klahowya is awaiting repairs to a propulsion generator, while the Walla Walla is awaiting repairs to a drive motor.

By LINDA THOMAS

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Comments (4)


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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Oh, for God sake, a 90 minute cruse is only 2 ferry runs, at the most.
    December 13, 2012 6:28 pm
    And we are making due OK without that returning boat now, so ......... Hey, it's not like Saturday (12/15) was a commuting day or too close to the Christmas holiday.

    Be that as it may, while 1000 is far too many for any one yacht, I seem to remember that in some years past vessels on the Christmas cruse would take the developmentally challenged. ... While I don't have even a rubber raft, I'm sure if enough boaters put their minds together, a fun solution can be found.

    Go for it, guys.

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Good news, Ron. Private philanthropy pulls through (actually already pulled through) with no public resources involved.
    December 13, 2012 9:09 pm
    A very long standing tradition among boaters in Seattle and some surrounding communities is the annual Seafair Holiday Cruise. This year's event already took place, December 2. *No* public money was involved. This used to be called the "Special Peoples' Cruise", but some of the developmentally disadvantaged people served by the event were offended by being singled out as "special" so the official name has been changed.

    Seafair coordinates with the larger yacht clubs and private excursion vessels to host about 2,500 special guests and chaperones for a lighted boat parade. There is no cost to the guests, to Seafair, or to the organizations that bring the guests to the events. All of the skippers donate their time, their boats, the required fuel, etc. Several large cruise lines, such as Argosy, participate as well. Again, no public money is involved.

    I've been actively involved in the Seafair event since the 1990's. (For the past few years I have recruited the volunteer skippers from the second largest yacht club in the area).

    I'm amazed that state resources are used to basically duplicate a private, charitable event that took place just two weeks earlier. Even if the ferry crews donate their time, be sure that it still costs many hundreds of taxpayer dollars per hour to operate a Washington State Ferry.

    We need to encourage more private philanthropy. That means the state needs to stop spending money to duplicate services that private donors are already and very sufficiently providing. By spending state money to duplicate the privately donated event, the state just sucks the wind out of the private event in the future. Too many people are going to decide, "Why bother? The very same people are going to get a boat ride at taxpayer expense, so why should I, in effect, pay twice?"

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Why Doesn't the Active Ferry Employees Charitable Trust just buy each person a ticket to Bainbridge?
    December 13, 2012 9:20 pm
    Why not put the folks on a regularly scheduled run from Colman Dock to Eagle Harbor? Just several dollars apiece for a ticket from Seattle to Bainbridge, and there is no passenger fare collected from Bainbridge to Seattle, so the return leg is already free.

    There's a nice two hour or so event that utilizes state resources without taking them out of normal productive service. If the Seafair Pirates want to cruise over and back, then great. They can buy tickets as well. :-)

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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Any why not? It's a Great Idea.
    December 14, 2012 2:06 am
    It will need a waver from Homeland Security so everyone doesn't have ho debark at Bainbridge, but I'd hope that shouldn't be a problem.

    "All things government" doesn't mean that government is the ONLY way to help. ... Volunteerism and a little logic. Merry Christmas.

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