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Southeast Alaska: Alaska Marine Highway Tested Jet Foils in the 1980s ; Hundreds of residents took rides during demonstrations By DAVE KIFFER - Over the past four decades the Alaska Marine Highway System has looked at a variety of ways to efficiently move passengers and vehicles over Alaska's watery expanses.

It has looked at larger ferries, smaller ferries and faster twin hulled catamarans. It even considered jet foils in the 1980s.

The jet foils it considered would never have been able to carry vehicles or large amounts of cargo, but they would have been more than twice as fast as regular ferries and would have been able to carry more than 300 passengers on shorter runs within the system. One of the possible uses would have been to ferry large groups of students and adults to events like music festivals and regional sporting competitions.

The AMHS even arranged to test jet foils in Southeast in the early 1980s, affording hundreds of residents the chance to take short trips on the speedy ships.

The jet foils were built by Boeing Marine Industries in Renton and designated as Boeing 929s by the company. Boeing used technology developed by its aircraft building division to make the jet foils aerodynamically efficient. The jet foils were designed with foils that lifted the hull of the ship out of the water, decreasing drag and allowing for the greater speeds.

Initially, Boeing's first jet foils were for the Hawaiian market. Three of the original 929s began operating for Seaflite in Hawaii in 1975 and continued until Seaflite shut down in 1979. Then those three jet foils began operations for Far East Hydrofoil between Hong Kong and Macau.

In the early 1980s, other companies leased Boeing jet foils for operations in Indonesia, Korea, the English Channel, the Canary Islands and Saudi Arabia. Most notably. There was regularly scheduled Boeing jet foil service between Seattle and Victoria in the mid 1980s. 

There was also industrial uses as companies with offshore oil rigs leased jetfoils to ferry crewmembers and supplies back and forth.

The 929s were approximately 100 feet long and weighed 100 tons. Driven by twin 3,300 horsepower engines, they could reach speeds of just above 50 mph. A trip between Ketchikan and Wrangell that would take six hours on the normal ferry would take a little over two and half hours on the jet foil.

In 1982, the AHMS gave Boeing a $1.2 million contract to operate jet foils in Southeast Alaska as a demonstration project. Juneau Sen. Bill Ray secured the state funding for the project. Part of the project would be making goodwill visits to places like Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Wrangell and Petersburg. Those took place in the summer of 1982.

And part was to provide regular service between Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Tenakee, Angoon, Hoonah and Sitka between June 16 and September 3, 1984.  Fairs ranged from $18 between Haines and Skagway to $47 from Juneau to Sitka. A trip from Skagway to Sitka - with an overnight in Juneau - cost $92. The AHMS also partnered with other tour providers to set up excursion tours to Tracy Arm, the Juneau Icefield and other locations in addition to remote lodges for fishing.

There was also onboard food service, part of what the jet foil called its "flight menu." A variety of sandwiches could be had for $4.

The jet foil drummed up significant publicity in the communities in Southeast and, according to a story in the Petersburg Pilot in June of 1982, more than 800 Southeast residents turned out to take rides on the jet foil.

Seattle based marketer/designer Robin Dale Spicer was living in Juneau in 1984 and helped promote the trials, which used a jet foil named the "Ares." - More....
Saturday PM - November 18, 2017

Fish Factor: Alaska Young Fishermen's Summit Coming Up By LAINE WELCH - The biggest year classes of Alaska fishermen are phasing out of the business and fewer young cohorts are recruiting in. The Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit has convened over a decade to help stanch that outward flow, and facilitate a future for fishing leaders.

The average age of a commercial fisherman in Alaska was 50 in 2014 compared to 40 in 1980. At the same time, the number of Alaskans under 40 holding fishing permits fell to just 17 percent, down from nearly 40 percent of total permits across the state.

The Summit coming up this year Anchorage, provides three days of fast paced networking and skill-building for newcomers to fishing and those considering the occupation as a career, although everyone from “graybeards to greenhorns” are welcome to attend.

“Age is secondary to what we are trying to accomplish and that is getting folks oriented to the whole suite of fisheries aspects from management to markets, as well as a real solid hit on looking critically at their business model,” said Torie Baker of Alaska Sea Grant in Cordova, which hosts the Summit.

“If you’re thinking about diversifying your operation or getting into another fishery or upgrading, we have a lot of great folks who come and help us with all aspects of the business parts of it,” Baker said. 

Besides business, the Summit focuses on Alaska’s role in world seafood markets, the latest science affecting fisheries and the regulatory process, which features a mock Board of Fisheries meeting.

“We actually assign roles and have folks get up there and practice public speaking, and we bring in people who play those roles in real life,” Baker said,

Networking with industry professionals and fishing peers is always one of the most popular Summit draws.

“People get totally new perspectives about fisheries across the state,” Baker said. “Just for salmon alone, there are 26 districts from Ketchikan to Kotzebue, and our longline fisheries are all over the place. It is an eye opener for these folks to get together, compare notes and challenges and aspirations.”

Fishermen’s concerns have changed over time, she said, and based on recent exit surveys, it is the environment that is now drawing the most interest.

“There is definitely a sensitivity in the oceanography and physical processes going on out there. That’s the source from which this all comes,” Baker said. “We’re working with hunter/gatherers who connect the dots every day in their lives and livelihood.”  - More...
Saturday PM - November 18, 2017

DANNY TYREE: Thanksgiving: Have You Already Missed It? - As far as Thanksgiving songs are concerned, "Over the River and Through the Woods" may soon be replaced by rock group Chicago's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"

According to a Wall Street Journal article titled "The Whenever Thanksgiving," a survey by polling firm CivicScience shows that 16 percent of respondents plan to celebrate Thanksgiving earlier than the traditional Thanksgiving Day this year, and another 13 percent are willing to experiment in the future. (And 24 percent of those surveyed thanked God that they keep an air horn by the telephone for occasions when pesky pollsters call during mealtime. At least pollsters THINK that's what they said.)

Yes, in order to work with the busy schedules of family members and lessen holiday stress, a growing number of Americans no longer consider themselves tied down by the fourth Thursday of November.

Oh, there are still traditionalists, like my elderly neighbor, who thinks Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments in one hand and a recipe for mincemeat pie in the other. She won't even let the menfolk watch football on TV after the Thanksgiving Day meal (insisting that they honor indigenous peoples by receiving the play-by-play via smoke signals).

Nonetheless, a significant segment of us ARE observing Thanksgiving earlier. The Journal said one family actually celebrated its "Fauxgiving" on October 28th three days before Halloween! The gathering was marred only by the inconvenience of taking the turkey to the hospital for x-rays after fake news of Butterballs stuffed with razor blades circulated. - More...
Saturday PM - November 18, 2017

MICHAEL REAGAN: Not Sen. Moore and not Weird Al - Hello, Senator Franken.

Welcome to the growing list of creepy guys in Hollywood and Washington who apparently think it's OK - or funny -- for men in power to sexually harass or assault women and men.

We'll see if the liberal media and his fellow Democrats treat the charges against Franken as seriously as they've been treating the ones against Republican Senate hopeful Roy Moore of Alabama.

Franken, the very unfunny comedian who became the very liberal senator from Minnesota in 2009, is apologizing as fast as he can - and even calling for a Senate ethics committee to investigate himself.

But weird Al's got a lot of 'splaining to do. 

On-air radio personality Leeann Tweeden of Los Angeles has accused him of kissing her without her consent and groping her in 2006 during a USO tour in Afghanistan. 

There's even a damning photo of a grinning Franken cupping his hands over Tweeden's breasts while she slept that has quickly gone viral.

Given that sexual predators of all kinds don't commit a single sleazy act of molestation, assault or harassment and then retire, we'll probably be hearing from other women who had unwanted encounters with Franken.

In any case, Franken apparently is not Congress' lone harasser. 

We learned just this week that for years Congress has had a secret slush fund to pay off women who had been victims of sexual harassment by its members.

More than $15 million in settlements - paid by taxpayers --was spent from 1997 to 2014 to protect our duly elected slime balls from bad publicity they probably deserved. - More...
Saturday PM - November 18, 2017