Abandon ships - Hawaii Business

The Hawaii Superferry, anchored in bankruptcy in a Wilmington, Del., courtroom, is seeking to literally abandon ship about three months after legal and environmental obstacles forced it to cease operations in the islands.

[bumpercrop]

What a shame. This company came to Hawaii in good faith. They still should be here providing service and jobs.

[Blue]

What a travesty of enterprise and logic. The narrow minded tribal attitude and fear of change has sealed the fate of yet another beneficial venture for the islands to become more self reliant.
I have seen the huge foreign cruise ships docking at the many island ports, and the thousands of disrespectful travelers stealing our resources. Yet we welcome that environmental disaster and our economic dependence on that tourism. Maybe we should go back to living in grass huts.
Sad Sad Sad

[bruddahc]

Poor Superferry, this state really screwed them. Any other start up businesses out there want to come here and make a go of it? forget about it, you'll lose your shirt. We have too many activists who are against any change at all. Sad.

[KOUKOA]

I am still praying that the Hawaii Superferry will return to Hawaii and be very successful.

[Grinchie]

Wow, just think that they sat on their butts for 1.5 years while they could have performed a Environmental Impact Statement as required by state law.

This is a great lesson to imperial Lawmakers that think they can change the laws to entice business interests against the will of the people and get away with it.

As far as the Environmnetal Impact is concerned, there has been, and continues to be, a one sided discussion in favor of the Superferry, without actually divulging the immense amount of impact this type of craft would have on marine life in the most isolated Archipelago on the planet.

The Hawaii Superferry takes its leadership from the Military in it's arroagence to be held unaccountable to the people of the State it is in a position to harm, and GM, which was a predatory Corporation committed to selling product without considering the consequences.

The only Good Faith that Hawaii Superferry came to Hawaii with was that it would be feeding at the table of Government Welfare and the super engorged Military Teat.

Good riddance HSF. Your abandonment of the two vessals is a fitting end to this boondoggle.

[sour grapes]

Young bros really stuck it to ya, hawaii. Thanks Glenn

[huh]

I guess it was too flimsy to be used as the high speed military transport that it was supposed to be.

[uncle_aina]

Yeah, I feel so sorry for them. Poor Superferry. Got such a raw deal. We only gave them $40,000,000 State dollars and $186,000,000 in Federal loans and they STILL went bankrupt....all due to 30-40 hippies. Wow. What a major take down for the hippies!

Nah, couldn't have anything to do with special interests, Special Sessions, special laws (Act 2), backroom deals...nope. It was all done by the hippies.

So what next?

Well if you'll look at their longterm goals, they are still perfectly on track.

They will now re-sell these ferries in auction to a group made up of their own buddies (Lehman and friends) and they will end up with 2 brand new Jones-Act Ferries for maybe $120,000,000...all at roughly 40% off. Then they will lease these back to the US Marines at $10,000,000 per year and make they're money back over the next 6 years. By 2015 they will have 2 paid-for High Speed ferries and they can continue to lease them or sell them for over $100,000,000.

We here in Hawaii will have lost $40,000,000 that could have built schools..maybe even kept State workers from lay offs..

But never mind. Blame the hippies.

Kneel before The ALL-POWERFUL HIPPIES.

[Keoni K]

Grinchie wrote:

Good riddance HSF. Your abandonment of the two vessals is a fitting end to this boondoggle.

And now we have no cheap alternative to get to other islands, move cargo or our cars, visit relatives or go to doctor. Who wins? Rental car agencies, Young Bros and the ecoterrorists like Sierra Club. You think another company is going to come pay for an EIS and sink money into the state to provide the service? Oh no, ain't gonna happen. They saw the sheep in the water off Kauai. Why spend money on an endeavor that may be stalled by sheep on surfboards. This is why Kauai is the okole of the state. This thinking will fatten up the terrorists and hurt the individual who wants to visit auntie and not pay for a car rental. Idiots abound. 1880s attitudes will keep you in the hinterlands forever.

[That sinking sound]

Slam, bam, thank you ma'am.
Amazing how fast someone committed to a concept abandons its ships and offices.

[Aloha_Girl]

I doubt that the Super Ferry caused environmental damages. I think the airlines that fly between the islands were behind these protests.

[Tster]

Thats why I live on the mainland now,all the haole's make it hard for the local people... those who think they own the island should get a life and look at where they came from...

[Thousand Cuts]

Wow assets are disposed off so fast. If only we could rid ourselves of the Wicked Witch of the West and Wizard of Doo as quickly.

[whateva]

uncle_aina, you got all the answers but none of the facts...same ole dribble each time a superferry article comes out...

they went bankrupt for many reasons, none of which are related in any fathomable way to a navy test-bed...go read the bankruptcy filing to see what kind of individuals, families and trusts invested in the operation

take off your rose colored glasses uncle

[GD Hilo]

uncle_aina wrote:

Yeah, I feel so sorry for them. Poor Superferry. Got such a raw deal. We only gave them $40,000,000 State dollars and $186,000,000 in Federal loans and they STILL went bankrupt....all due to 30-40 hippies. Wow. What a major take down for the hippies!
Nah, couldn't have anything to do with special interests, Special Sessions, special laws (Act 2), backroom deals...nope. It was all done by the hippies.
So what next?
Well if you'll look at their longterm goals, they are still perfectly on track.
They will now re-sell these ferries in auction to a group made up of their own buddies (Lehman and friends) and they will end up with 2 brand new Jones-Act Ferries for maybe $120,000,000...all at roughly 40% off. Then they will lease these back to the US Marines at $10,000,000 per year and make they're money back over the next 6 years. By 2015 they will have 2 paid-for High Speed ferries and they can continue to lease them or sell them for over $100,000,000.
We here in Hawaii will have lost $40,000,000 that could have built schools..maybe even kept State workers from lay offs..
But never mind. Blame the hippies.
Kneel before The ALL-POWERFUL HIPPIES.

You forgot to add the Daffy Duck Court to the end of a good service.

[Kalani from Hilo]

Everybody who keeps defending the SuperFerry should go read the article in the Pacific Business News about a week ago. The HSF walked away leaving numerous Hawai'i businesses holding the bag for millions of dollars. This didn't happen overnight-- they NEVER WERE PROFITABLE. Sort of like go! airlines, they kept fares artifically low trying to lure everybody in while they wormed their way thru the courts. If they had been successful either thru the courts or a completed EIS, then you would have seen the true pricing come out. But the "real" story is that HSF never intended to stay a passenger operation long term-- their plan was for big dollar government contracts.
This whole deal was a boondoggle from the get-go and was made possible for too many friendships in high places. This was NEVER a viable deal-- if it had been, then the Ferry people would have been able to get financing to continue to operate in some fashion somewhere else. But it was obvious that lenders & private venturists looked their operation over and said "I'll pass".
If you're truly planning to be a viable business, then you don't get yourself into the kind of debt they incurred with a good workable business plan-- it happens when there never was a real plan to begin with. Their "perceived plan" was always a major government contract (or two)-- but administrations changed in DC before they were able to make that all happen. Thus they were doomed for failure.

Do a little research as to who the players were in the HSF operation and their connections in Washington and especially in the military. You might be surprised at what you dig up.

[BingBing]

Bing it; Littoral combat ships. Google is so old hat.

The old contract was rescinded, cut back to one. Then new specifications were written, so as the current contracts read (3) boats for Austal,(3) boats for Lockeed were awarded.

The SF mess; chump change. Uncle Aina is more correct than you realize.

[Kalani from Hilo]

whateva wrote:

...go read the bankruptcy filing to see what kind of individuals, families and trusts invested in the operation...

If you're referring to the "individuals, familirs, and trusts" who are listed as creditors, there's a BIG difference. Those were the people HSF owed money to-- not "investors".
The big "investors" were pretty much the U.S. Government, the lenders, and the State of Hawai'i.

[Kalani from Hilo]

Just to be sure I was correct, I did go read the entire bankruptcy filing. Hawaii SuperFerry was a 100% privately held company. There were no "individuals, families, or trusts" that were "investors".

Go to the filing:
http://www.marinelog.com/PDF/superferry.pdf

Pages 3-6 of the pdf lists all those folks & businesses (& the state) that got stiffed. Page 11 of the pdf tells you the company was 100% privately held.

[Kalani from Hilo]

Oops, sorry-- page 6-7-8 of the pdf lists the creditors (not 3-6). Senior moment.