Marketing Push Will Be Needed, Say Backers of Fast Ferry Service

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Marketing the Vineyard.

That is the key to developing successful high-speed passenger ferry service between New Bedford and the Vineyard, a partner in a new business consortium has told the Dukes County county commissioners.

"We must market your Island. That's what it's all about. We must market your Island and your businesses. No one rides the ferry just to ride the ferry," said Mike Glasfeld, owner of Bay State Cruises and one of four partners in New England Fast Ferry Company LLC, the group that proposes to run high-speed passenger service between New Bedford and the Vineyard beginning next summer.

Following a vote of the board of governors last month, Steamship Authority managers are now negotiating a license contract with New England Fast Ferry.

A second vote by the board is still required before the license can be issued.

The four principals in the new ferry company made their sales pitch to the Dukes County Commission last week.

"This is not a white elephant. We want to market your Island. That's what this is all about," said Mr. Glasfeld. "Marketing the destination - it's all about marketing," he added.

The presentation included a brief description of each company involved in the consortium. In addition to Bay State Cruises, the consortium includes Interlake Steamship Co. and Lakes Shipping, two Great Lakes cargo companies; Moran Towing Co., an East Coast barge and tugboat company; and Mormac Marine Group, an ocean shipping company. All the companies except Bay State Cruises are owned by the Barker and Tregurtha families. James Barker, a partner, told the county commissioners last week that Mormac Marine is going out of business and the capital assets will be transferred to the new ferry company.

The group plans to build two 150-passenger high-speed ferries to run between the State Pier in New Bedford and the Vineyard. The plan calls for running year-round service, although Mr. Glasfeld said last week that the second boat will not be built until the second year of the service. Fares are planned at $20 each way with some kind of discount program for commuters, senior citizens and tour groups.

On the Vineyard, reaction to the new ferry service has been somewhat mixed, and the boat line has come under some criticism in recent weeks as a somewhat fuzzy game plan has emerged for opening up a new port in New Bedford. Several weeks ago members of the Martha's Vineyard Commission criticized the boat line for failing to do a market study.

County commissioners joined the skeptics, albeit at the eleventh hour, voting 5-1 last month to ask the boat line to delay any decision on the service until more information is developed. But SSA governors voted without dissent to move ahead with negotiating the contract. (Board chairman and Nantucket governor Grace Grossman abstained from the vote.)

Marketing has been a touchy theme over the years on the Vineyard and Nantucket, where visitors are never in short supply and there is concern about the ruinous effects of too much exposure through advertising.

Last week county commissioners listened politely to the presentation from New England Fast Ferry, but when it was all over some members of the commission continued to express doubts.

"This all sounds very exciting but it may not be what most people want," said county commissioner Paul Strauss.

The Wednesday meeting lasted for nearly three hours. Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel, SSA chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin, boat line treasurer Wayne Lamson, boat line general counsel Steven Sayers, and Falmouth governor Robert Marshall all attended.

At the outset Ms. Roessel reiterated that the ferry contract is still in the talk stage.

"This is not a done deal," she said.

Ms. Roessel has hosted a number of public forums on the Vineyard to discuss the proposed new ferry service, and she pledged to do more.

Jeff Kristal, head of the Tisbury business association, called the fast ferry "a great idea."

But others expressed open puzzlement at the boat line's game plan for New Bedford, a plan which has zigged and zagged so much in the last few years that it merits a John Madden diagram. The highlights include:

* A pilot freight program was launched between New Bedford and the Vineyard four years ago, aimed at taking trucks off the road in Falmouth.

* The freight program was shelved three years later following a surprise purchase of the passenger ferry Schamonchi for $1.2 million.

* The Schamonchi is now limping into its third summer under boat line management, with huge annual operating losses.

* Discussions about running high-speed passenger service between New Bedford and the Vineyard have bumped along through the Schamonchi years, ending finally with a request for proposals (RFP) from private operators for the service. New England Fast Ferry Co. was one of two companies responding to the RFP.

* New Bedford ferry ideas have fluctuated alongside changes in board membership at the boat line. Longtime Vineyard governor Ronald H. Rappaport stepped down in October of 2000 and was replaced by J.B. Riggs Parker. Mr. Parker, whose tenure was stormy, was replaced the following year by Ms. Roessel. The Falmouth membership has also been in a state of flux: Former board member Edward DeWitt stepped down several months after Mr. Rappaport and was replaced by Galen Robbins, who was recently replaced by Robert Marshall, the current governor.

"I just feel like I'm missing something totally," declared county treasurer Noreen Mavro Flanders at the meeting Wednesday night. "I thought the whole idea of this was to reduce vehicle traffic in Falmouth . . . . You started out with a freight program, and now all of a sudden that's gone and we are talking about passenger service. How is all of this going to help the town of Falmouth with the trucks? All of a sudden that has gone away," she said.

"You are absolutely right," replied Mr. Marshall. "The truck issue is enormous and we would all like to see some kind of freight service from New Bedford. But New Bedford has made it clear that they want to see some foot traffic through their city first. As a practical matter we had to start with something," he added.

"But you started with freight," Mrs. Flanders shot back.

"That was before my time and before Fred's time," Mr. Marshall said.

"What about the plan to run a hazardous freight trip through New Bedford - and I don't want to hear that New Bedford won't allow it," said county commissioner Leonard Jason Jr.

Barbara Day, a West Tisbury resident who attended the meeting, picked up the theme.

"I've talked to some people in Woods Hole and Falmouth and what they really want to get rid of is the freight. It seems to me that the way to do this is to do it all at the same time, to tell New Bedford that if [they] are going to do passenger service then they must allow freight. If you do it that way, then somebody is going to have to listen," Mrs. Day said.

T.J. Hegarty, the county rodent control officer who attended the meeting, reflected even more confusion. "I haven't heard you mention the Schamonchi once - and that was quite a large price tag," he said.

Mr. Raskin returned to an earlier theme.

"We will strive to make the Schamonchi viable, but if it can't be marketed successfully, then it will not be continued," he said