MADONNA CONSTRUCTION - 25.0

Ferry Line Board of Directors met Monday evening,
April 20, at the Ferry Line office. "This is no way
to celebrate our company's 80th year in business,"
observed President Hoyt Purinton.

Washington Island -

The opening shot I selected for this posting is of our Monday, April 20 Board of Directors meeting, held in the WIFL office.  Bill Schutz, Rich Ellefson, myself, and Hoyt Purinton are seated in rather close quarters, masks on, while three other board members are on a conference line. (Ed Graf, Joel Lueking, John McClaren.)

The thumbs up were to indicate OK, ready to begin, and not that our meeting discussion points were as we preferred them.

How does a business that thrived in the previous year, and actually through the beginning of this calendar year, suddenly face threats of survivability, solvency, and the ability to continue life-line transportation services into the future?

Such questions came in many shapes and forms, along with a picture of future profitability severely cropped, highlighted by extremely low revenues during the past month.  Through Sunday, April 19: 82 round trips produced an average of 6 passengers and five autos per round trip.  While there is additional revenue gained from carrying the U. S. Mail and freight, it doesn't require a business degree to see that such ferry service is not a sustainable activity, and that the current picture must change by late June or July in order to produce revenues that will sustain needed equipment, properties and labor required to provide even limited measures of service.  As of Wednesday last week, the ferry Washington is the only vessel for making daily trips.  The three other ferries currently are sidelined, that is, removed from service unless or until traffic demands more hulls.

The Ferry Line business dilemma is one that many other small businesses currently face.  We're not alone in that.  And yet, it remains a critical business for this community, our Township,  residents, taxpayers and owners of Island properties.

Among the questions raised at our meeting, with no ready answers:  "When will it change?  Will the Covid-19 threat diminish enough to provide salvation of the coming summer season?"  Signs currently point to a cautious approach for opening up the economy.  This will mean continuation of low to well-below-average traffic numbers.  Even if we'll experience a more open and optimistic economy, social distancing may still require or at least encourage cautious travel.

The Ferry Line will endure for another month and, maybe, two at current levels of activity.  By June 15th decisions will be made regarding ancillary public services.  The Karfi to Rock Island State Park may be a superfluous business, one where passengers "by nature" find themselves in close quarters on a small vessel, and where personal gear of all sorts is handled back and forth.  The Cherry Train Tour has similar challenges:  close bench seating (even if in open air) and the touching of surfaces by many persons in a given day.

For the time being, passenger traffic boarding the ferry has almost exclusively ridden aboard in their vehicles, and those persons are encouraged to remain within their vehicles.  Will warmer weather bring more foot passengers, encourage the outdoors experience with lesser concern for the Coronavirus?  By July Fourth holiday time period will Island visitors find services open and available?  We can't gauge at this point how the tourism and visitor traffic might look for our local economy.

   *       *        *        *

Rich Ellefson reported this morning that "wheels were slugged
and ready to install pintle base bearings." Meaning, the propellers
were tightened on the shaft tapers using a slugging wrench and heavy hammer
on the large brass nuts.  A bearing in a removable shoe
will support the lower end of the rudder.  Some vessels have
free-hanging rudders.  WIFL has had good success employing
both above-and-below attachments.  Ice guards are seen
above each rudder, added protection when backing in ice.

Top of one rudder stock inside the stern compartment.

Let's move to a more positive topic - positive, that is, if we don't concern ourselves with vessel construction payments.

We're happy to report, through photos provided by Rich Ellefson, the finishing stages of the Madonna project at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding continue to move rapidly forward.  In little time since entering the dry dock,  shafts were installed and propellers slid onto tapers at the outer ends of each shaft.  Rudder installation came next.

Each keel cooler, one for each engine, is then
protected by a grid from ice passing by.

Keel coolers were installed at the hull exterior, beneath the engine room, and they will undergo system air pressure testing.  Paint touch-ups are ongoing to the vessel exterior, including characteristic red and blue striping, applied by means of aerial lifts rolling over the dry dock floor.

One of several engine room electrical panels. Fiberglass
blankets shield adjacent boxes from weld splatter.     

There is much work yet to be done in the engine room, connecting wiring and piping.  Some of the wiring runs, such as for engine and transmission controls, run continuously from engine room to the pilot house on the upper most deck.

In one of the photos shown you will see the uppermost deck with an area that is primed but not finish coated, where the pilot house will soon be installed.  The short extensions on the deck will be for mounting passenger benches.

The current shipyard work schedule calls for the pilot house structure to be set in place late Thursday or early Friday of this week.  The wetting of the hull may yet be accomplished Friday, with the gradual flooding of the dry dock in stages, enabling the monitoring for inadvertent leaks.
  -  Dick Purinton

Main deck view looking aft.

If all goes according to schedule (and often it does!) the pilot
house wil be spray painted today and installed later Thursday
on the open square area shown above.