{"id":24094,"date":"2017-03-15T18:23:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T01:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/up-for-sale-state-ferry-taku-isnt-a-buyers-delight\/"},"modified":"2017-03-15T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T01:23:10","slug":"up-for-sale-state-ferry-taku-isnt-a-buyers-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/up-for-sale-state-ferry-taku-isnt-a-buyers-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"Up for sale, state ferry Taku isn\u2019t a buyer\u2019s delight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The difference between dreams and reality is about $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Alaska Marine Highway listed the 54-year-old ferry Taku for sale<\/a>, minimum bid $1.5 million. For a ferry system dreaming of one day breaking even, the sale means new revenue. The Taku, expensive to operate and maintain<\/a>, will be replaced by one of two new Alaska-class ferries under construction in Ketchikan.<\/p>\n

For the buyer, the Taku could be a dreamed-of link between remote islands in the South Pacific, a floating lodge, or a quick profit at the scrapyard.<\/p>\n

On both sides, the dreams aren\u2019t likely to come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of dreamers, and they feel like, hey, we can pick it up cheap,\u201d said Seattle boat broker Brian Peterson of Marcon International Inc.<\/p>\n

In reality, the scrapyard is usually the destination.<\/p>\n

[Cities and boroughs get first dibs on ferry Taku before it heads to auction<\/a>] <\/ins><\/p>\n

Boat broker Harry Mose knows that through first-hand experience. A few years ago, he sold the Canadian ferry Pacific Aurora. It had been in service along Canada\u2019s east coast, then brought to British Columbia and repurposed. Its owners wanted $2.5 million for the ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them they were out to lunch,\u201d Mose recalled.<\/p>\n

Despite the price, there was no shortage of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that Pacific Aurora, it took four or five years to actually sell it, but I had almost 5,000 inquiries, most of them by email, thankfully,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were all just that, people dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mose ultimately sold the Pacific Aurora for $150,000, and that was for a ship newer and smaller than the Taku. No one wanted to buy a ship that needed significant repairs and costly certifications to operate again. The Taku needs both, according to a condition report dated Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish them luck on their million and a half,\u201d he said of Alaska\u2019s asking price.<\/p>\n

A Seattle boat broker familiar with Alaska and granted anonymity to speak candidly, said unless the precisely right buyer is looking at the exact right time, the state\u2019s minimum bid is a dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll get a look, but if I had to guess, they\u2019ll never see that million-five,\u201d the broker said. \u201cIf it goes into a foreign, South American or wherever market, they\u2019re not going to want to pay much. They\u2019re not going to be able to pay much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the buyer was willing to pay the state\u2019s minimum bid, federal rules will send 63 percent of sale proceeds to federally funded transportation programs in Alaska. The remaining 37 percent will go to the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n

A familiar refrain<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last time the state sold a ferry, which was 2003, someone bought it on eBay. Lloyd Cannon, then the CEO of All Alaskan Seafoods, bought the E.L. Bartlett for $389,500 from the online auction site using the username \u201cSalmon Man 1953\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cannon, who died in 2010, told the Empire at the time<\/a> that he wasn\u2019t quite sure what he was going to do with his new 1,500-ton ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have about five people with ideas. We just got to figure out if they have any money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cannon considered turning the Bartlett into a fishing boat, then listed it for sale himself, but after there were no takers, he donated it to the Seattle Maritime Academy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still there, and Craig Bailey, the academy\u2019s former port captain, still teaches students aboard the Bartlett, which hasn\u2019t moved from its berth since arriving at the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimulation is fantastic, but for physical work things, you need to actually do the task,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Bartlett\u2019s car deck is lined with workbenches that have turned it into a classroom space, and classes of 30 students at a time are led by instructors.<\/p>\n

Even as a classroom, stationary and tied up, the Bartlett is expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll eventually sell it,\u201d said Sarah Scherer, director of the academy. \u201cIt\u2019s just too big for us to maintain, and we can\u2019t get under way. It\u2019s a liability at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another year or two, Scherer said, the Bartlett will be sold again. Bailey said someone in Hawaii had asked about using it as a ferry there.<\/p>\n

Uncertain future<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Alaska, the dreamers have come calling for the Taku since it was laid up in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had, I think, upwards of 10-12 people express interest in the last two-year period,\u201d said Capt. Mike Neussl, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and the man in charge of the Marine Highway.<\/p>\n

The state is requiring bidders to put $5,000 down as earnest money, and as of Monday, Neussl said no one had done so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to sell the vessel, get a fair price for it, and hopefully there is some competition and interest for that,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, if we don\u2019t get anybody \u2026 that meets all the qualifications and requirements, then we\u2019ll regroup or do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bids are due by 3 p.m. May 9.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

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The difference between dreams and reality is about $1.5 million. On Friday, the Alaska Marine Highway listed the 54-year-old ferry Taku for sale, minimum bid $1.5 million. For a ferry system dreaming of one day breaking even, the sale means new revenue. The Taku, expensive to operate and maintain, will be replaced by one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":24095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[79,95],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-marine-highway","tag-alaska-state-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24094"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}