Meeting on  Kahului Harbor Squeeze Play

11:30 AM  to  1 PM       Wednesday,  May 30, 2007

On Wednesday May 30, 2007 the Wailuku Mainstreet Association Inc, Tri-Isle Resource Center will be hosting a Small Town Forum entitled : Kahului Harbor Squeeze Play.
The meeting will have a panel of representatives including recreation users, farm bureau, State DOT, local businesses and Joe Souki.  The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss harbor uses, accessibility, affordability and how to plan for the future of the harbor. The meeting will be held at Good Shepard Episcopal Church (just below Wailuku McDonalds) in the meeting hall (2140 Main Street, Wailuku). The church requests that you park in the municipal lot next to the church. 

Kahului Harbor packed

The Maui News
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

KAHULUI - It was standing room only - or whatever the nautical truism would be - at Kahului Harbor Tuesday.

With the harbor jammed with itinerant ships, cargo barges and work barges, Harbormaster Steve Pfister was happy for the nearly windless, voggy day.

"I have one more barge here than I thought we could ever have," he said on a calm, bright Tuesday afternoon.

The roll call included Pride of America and the sugar ship Moku Pahu at Pier 1; Matson's auto/container barge Waialeale and her tug at the fuel dock; and the Young Brothers' barge Kakela, a crane barge, the Superferry landing barge Manaiakalani, another work barge and three tugs at Pier 2.

It was a record that may have been exceeded during World War II but not since, and Pfister says the harbor is going to stay pretty much maxed out from now on.

Landlubbers might have caught the cruise ship, nearly a thousand feet long, doing a 360 in the turning basin in order to moor stern on at the seaward end of Pier 1. The cruise ships normally moor shoreward and bow on. But the Moku Pahu has to have that spot because that's where the gantry cranes for sugar are.

"This harbor wasn't built for cruise ships," said Pfister.

It wasn't just the berths that were crowded. The shore-side operations were also.

When a cruise ship is in town, Pfister says, he has to accommodate about 350 cars in 200 parking spaces.

By moving containers, trucks and cars around, he mostly copes, but there are times when he has to tow cars.

"I want to help the tourists out, I don't want to tow their rental cars, but sometimes I have to do it.

"We towed a few cars today."

By today, the two construction barges and their tugs that were putting finishing touches on the Superferry landing barge should be gone. But by July, the ferry will be occupying the end of Pier 2 for several hours every day.

Young Brothers ties up one, sometimes two, barges at Pier 2 at least six days a week.

A cruise ship occupies Pier 1 nearly every day, and a Matson barge or freighter like the Great Land or the Pasha auto carrier Jean Anne takes up another Pier 1 berth most days. Occasional freighters delivering coal or steel also want Pier 1.

A weekly fuel barge and occasional barges loaded with sand or cement tie to the fuel dock.

Although all of the ships and barges will be moving out by 5 a.m. today, their places will be taken by a new assortment of vessels. The Kahului Harbor schedule shows the Columbia Boston in at 5:30 a.m., the Rogue in at 6 a.m., the Pride of Hawaii showing up at 7 a.m., Hui Mana arriving at noon and Waialeale back for a stopover at 10 p.m.

Later this summer, the harbor will get another permanent resident, the PNR Water Taxi assist tug Daniel K. Akaka. Pier 3 is being modified to accommodate that tug as well as Matson's tugs. Matson no longer has a resident tug.

With divers in the harbor working on the ferry landing barge, and all the other traffic, Pfister was thankful not to also be dealing with 20- to 25-knot trade winds, not uncommon in Kahului Bay.

Pfister arranged for aerial photographs of the harbor Tuesday because "people said it couldn't be done."

That'll show 'em.