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Post by Mike C on Apr 21, 2006 18:39:47 GMT -8
(I believe) She was in the Black Ball fleet at one time, so I wouldn't be surprised if she sailed that route.
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Post by SS San Mateo on Apr 21, 2006 18:46:05 GMT -8
Didn't the Kalakala use to sail on the Port Angeles to Victoria run at one time? Before the Coho. I remember my Dad talking about her. Yes. After Black Ball withdrew the Chinook (later Sechelt Queen) from the route in 1953 or so, WSF was asked to take over the run for awhile and the Kalakala (which was the best suited vessel for that route) was used on it until Black Ball Transport (completely different company from Black Ball Lines) put the Coho on the route. -- LB
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SHipbuilders daughterwife
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Post by SHipbuilders daughterwife on Apr 21, 2006 20:08:12 GMT -8
I probably rode on that ship, when she was on the Victoria-Port Angeles run. I was very little at that time. I don't remember what she looked like in the inside, but she is still the same way that I remember on the outside.
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Post by Electric Thunderbird on Apr 21, 2006 23:58:55 GMT -8
There was a side door installed so she could load cars in Victoria Inner Harbor at the same place the Chinook docked.
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Post by Starbucks Queen on Jan 11, 2007 12:14:48 GMT -8
Hello, here are pics of my newest ferry-models - it's of course the famous streamlined ferry, so while the original is rotting away I managed to finish these models.. I have built actually two of these models now, but I took photos just of one.
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Post by Retrovision on Jan 11, 2007 12:51:11 GMT -8
I am in awe.
Thank you, SQ.
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Post by Starbucks Queen on Jan 11, 2007 14:56:07 GMT -8
Thanks for that - I just know there is a big flaw on the stern - the end which does look cut-off, it was not like this when the ship was built but this was done later on. Unfortunatelly I did not have the original plans (nobody knows where these ones are, anyways) so tha's not right. Look inside, you can see the aft staircase and the checkboard-tile floor of the palm room - I thought I build this in just in case one is so courious to look inside
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Post by EGfleet on Sept 18, 2008 9:01:58 GMT -8
This seemed to be the best place for this...I've been enjoying the "This Day In History" bits from the Times-Colonist.
Sept. 16, 1957: Dragged under ferry This Day in History Times Colonist Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Stories from our pages over the last 150 years.
Two Victoria towboatmen narrowly escaped death Sunday when the tug Island Comet sank in the Inner Harbor, just off the Evans-Coleman dock.
Rescued when the tug went under were David Hood, 3108 Earl Grey, skipper, and his mate, Harry Tebbs, West Saanich Road. The Island Comet was assisting the Washington State ferry Kalakala as it left on the 9 a.m. run to Port Angeles.
The tug was dragged under by her towline, which was fastened from her stern to the bow of the ferry.
It was the type of accident dreaded by all harbor tugs, known in marine terms as being "caught in the irons."
"Caught in the irons" means that the tow line, stretching from the stern of the tug, swings inside the right angle and in so doing, pulls the tug over on its side before the line can be released.
When Kalakala finished her backing manoeuvre and started to go ahead, the towline pulled the tug over on her port side. Water poured into the engine room hatchway, and the tug went down in 42 feet of water.
Tebbs, who was on the stern, could not cast off the towline.
He grabbed an axe and cut it as Capt. Hood rushed out of the wheelhouse and freed the tug's skiff.
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Post by EGfleet on Apr 3, 2009 12:11:33 GMT -8
Well, if you're going dream, dream big. I fully expect the next thing we hear about the Kalakala is that it has sunk in Tacoma, however. Kalakala owner unveils new, grandiose plans Apr 3, 2009 at 12:31 PM PDT By Travis Mayfield TACOMA -- Steve Rodrigues has hope, a lot of it. As the owner of the Kalakala, he has to have hope to believe the art-deco ferry boat can be restored and serve as a centerpiece for new development along Tacoma's waterfront that could include an indoor ski-slope, sky-diving, a hotel, and a dolphin aquarium. "The beauty of a community project that can be shared and bring a new sense of hope and that's what the Kalakala is all about," says Rodrigues. The Kalakala operated on the Puget Sound from 1935 until it was retired in 1967. Over the years it fell into disrepair and obscurity. Rodrigues purchased it hoping to bring about its rebirth. "The Kalakala is our first phase," says Rodrigues. He's hoping once it's restored, it can be displayed on the waterfront in Tacoma. From there his master plan calls for building up and around the historic ferry. "We do have investors willing to look at this," adds Rodrigues. "We could have a farmers market, scuba diving and our water features." Water features that could house dolphins he says. Grander still, a project he's calling the Columbia Gardens: "The snow feature is the exciting new entrepreneurial venture that will bring something new to this state. In fact, we'll have the first indoor snow skiing facility in the United States of America." Rodrigues would also like to see regional ferry boats or a local cruise line, like Argosy, dock at the facility. Helping support it all: A hotel, space for retail development, and possibly a restaurant. Rodrigues says he's reaching out to Tacoma, Pierce County and the state to find some way to join him in a public-private partnership to finance the plan which he estimates would cost $80 million to $100 million. Rodrigues even hopes there might be way to use federal stimulus dollars in getting the project started. "We'd create 200 direct jobs and with the economic multiplier we really impact the community with 600 jobs," he said. So far, no local government has expressed any interest in the project and still Rodrigues says he's hopeful. "I'm just filled with as much hope and that's what the Kalakala has given to me is that hope." www.komonews.com/news/local/42431182.html
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Post by SS Shasta on Apr 3, 2009 14:55:29 GMT -8
Looks like another bad case of "wishful" thinking??
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 3, 2009 21:05:47 GMT -8
Ooo yeah. He still wants others to fund his fickle visions. There were many good retorts to his proposal in the 'comments' section... like "indoor skiing? Has he noticed that we can ski outdoors here?"
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Post by Electric Thunderbird on Apr 12, 2009 8:23:41 GMT -8
Usually can't ski outdoors in the summer. Might make a Summer heat retreat. How much longer before the engine falls through the hull?
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 12, 2009 14:23:28 GMT -8
Might make a Summer heat retreat. A retreat from what? Can't run from what doesn't exist... Maybe we should run a pool...
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Post by BreannaF on Oct 15, 2009 22:08:50 GMT -8
All I can say to this is that I will believe it when I see it........ From the Seattle Times 15 October 2009: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kalakala owner sets his sights on Port AngelesBy The Associated Press PORT ANGELES — The owner of the 74-year-old ferry Kalakala wants to bring the dilapidated boat to Port Angeles, restore it and make it the centerpiece of a new waterfront development. It's the latest proposal from Steve Rodrigues, a Tacoma-area contractor and investor who has owned the streamlined, art deco-style ferry for the past six years. Rodrigues told the Peninsula Daily News that the development would include a marina, stores, condos and apartments, and a tourist "welcome center." The Kalakala would be remodeled into a floating restaurant and special-events center. The idea is similar to one Rodrigues earlier proposed for the Tacoma waterfront, where the Kalakala has been moored for five years. He also sought to make the boat an attraction in Seattle. His proposals gained little traction and no funding despite Rodrigues' attempts to interest potential investors, Tacoma city officials, Pierce County, the state and the U.S. government. Rodrigues met earlier this week with Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers and attended a meeting of the Harbor-Works Development Authority, which plans to direct development of the former Rayonier pulp mill site about two miles east of where Rodrigues would dock the Kalakala. "He still has not secured his financing," Myers said afterward, adding that the discussion was "very general in nature." "We told him once he gets his financing in place and the property is under escrow and secured, to come back and visit with us," Myers said. Rodrigues told the newspaper Wednesday that he wants to buy 400 feet of shoreline frontage and an acre of uplands from Gerald Austin and Jack Glaubert of Port Angeles. Rodrigues said restoration of the Kalakala would cost $11.2 million over three years and a floating-dock marina less than $2 million over two years. He eventually wants to build condos on the upland site. Asked whether he has the money for the project, he said, "I have more than enough to know that we are going to fully proceed with the project." The newspaper said Rodrigues would not say how much cash he has on hand. Austin said Wednesday that "we are nowhere" in discussions about Rodrigues buying the land. "He is still working on it. He wants us to give him the property, and he will get the money through a grant," Austin said. On his Web site, Rodrigues said he hopes to get a $700,000 grant from the National Park Service, and will seek grant money next year from the state. From 1935 to 1967, the Kalakala — its name means "Flying Bird" in the Chinook tribal language — ferried cars and people between Seattle and Bremerton, and Port Angeles and Victoria, B.C. The distinctive vessel became an icon for Seattle and a popular attraction for locals and tourists. After its retirement, it became a cannery in Kodiak, Alaska, before being refloated and returned to Seattle in 1998 by sculptor Peter Bevis. Various proposals to restore the boat never panned out, and Rodrigues bought the boat at auction in 2003.
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Post by EGfleet on Oct 16, 2009 7:14:01 GMT -8
I wonder if Tacoma is starting to get weary of the Kalakala hanging around.
As much as I am for preserving history and historic vessels, at this point I think the boat is simply too far gone for practical restoration.
The best thing would be to put her up on land, like they did with the W.T. Preston where you wouldn't be fighting the salt water constantly. It's easier to maintain her as a building than as a boat.
That being said...a lot of folks don't realize the Kalakala was built on the cheap and was not very heavily constructed. With the exception of one bench seat and the aft staircase, virtually nothing remains from her ferryboat days.
I stumbled across someone's Fickr account recently who had taken shots of her from the water in a kayak and there are gaping holes in the steel of her hull on the bow and in places where it was not while she was moored on Lake Union. The salt water has not been kind to the boat.
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Post by Kahloke on Oct 16, 2009 7:26:10 GMT -8
As much as I am for preserving history and historic vessels, at this point I think the boat is simply too far gone for practical restoration. The best thing would be to put her up on land, like they did with the W.T. Preston where you wouldn't be fighting the salt water constantly. It's easier to maintain her as a building than as a boat. Better yet, just sink her and make it the star attraction of an underwater dive park somewhere.
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Post by BreannaF on Oct 16, 2009 14:23:57 GMT -8
There's a none-too-flattering photo of the Kalakala HERE at the Peninsula Daily News, as well as a more involved story. The owner has a new website related to his project at www.thekalakala.com/. I feel that the presence of this website is absolute proof that any project can be made to look good, given a web address and a shiny new website template. Beyond that, he pictures the ferry to be the centerpiece of a new development in Port Angeles that includes restaurants, a marina, a visitors center, residential apartments, partridges, pear trees, and a lot more. Taken by itself, that seems like a pretty ambitious project for a town like Port Angeles. As someone who has been recently looking at a much, much smaller business opportunity in PA recently, and has observed the tens of thousands of square feet of empty retail and office space there, it is difficult for me to grasp how this new flashy project is going to be successful. There had better be a lot (a big lot!) of people firmly behind this, and an unlimited supply of marketing money behind it. And it still might not work. Of course, the centerpiece of the project will make it all worthwhile. All you need to do is a bit of elbow grease to shine-up the rusted-out hulk of a 1952 Chevy sedan that's only missing the doors, the engine, the seats, the tires, and the bottom of the car the Kalakala and tourists will flock to PA from hundreds of miles away as if it were Disneyland to spend their money there. I'll root for the guy. I hope it works. I've had to explain what a Kalakala was to anyone I've mentioned this to who wasn't a ferry hobbyist. Who knows, it could change the fortunes of the Olympic Peninsula. But, like I said before, I'll believe it when I see it.
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Post by hergfest on Oct 16, 2009 21:49:39 GMT -8
I think he keeps putting out press releases to try and garner up some money. And it isn't working.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,171
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Post by Neil on Oct 16, 2009 22:52:28 GMT -8
Beyond that, he pictures the ferry to be the centerpiece of a new development in Port Angeles that includes restaurants, a marina, a visitors center, residential apartments, partridges, pear trees, and a lot more. Taken by itself, that seems like a pretty ambitious project for a town like Port Angeles. Oh, come on, Brian- Rodrigues hasn't said anything about partridges and pear trees. Judging by the response from Port Angeles, it doesn't look like this project has a lot of credibility, as yet. The public just does not care about old car ferries. Period. It's been proven time and time again. There has never been anything that looks remotely like the Kalakala in these parts. She's an art deco oddity, unique among all the ferries on either side of the border. Still, no discernible groundswell of support to restore her. That should tell you something. Mr Rodrigues is on his own, for the most part, and the odds probably aren't good.
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Post by BreannaF on Jan 20, 2010 2:27:28 GMT -8
But ... but... you can't fault him for trying absolutely everything..... ===================================================== Article published Jan 20, 2010 Kalakala owner to embark on 'Walk for Hope' to D.C. for sake of vesselBy Paul Gottlieb Peninsula Daily News PORT ANGELES -- Steve Rodrigues still wants to dock the rusted, beat-up-looking ferry Kalakala along Hollywood Beach, but for the time being, he is setting his sights on Washington, D.C. The 58-year-old Tacoma-area civil engineer, investor, building contractor and Kalakala owner will update supporters on the project at a private meeting at noon today at Smuggler's Landing Restaurant and Lounge in Port Angeles, he said Tuesday. He plans to focus on his upcoming 180-day "Walk of Hope" to the nation's capital, where he wants President Barack Obama to declare the vessel a national monument. "Declaring it a national monument would restore its pride, regardless if it sinks or is afloat," Rodrigues said. "It deserves full recognition for what it's done for our communities and our entire state." The "Walk for Hope" will consist of a charter bus tour to various national parks and 179 cities, including 10 state capitals, he said. It begins in Olympia on Jan. 27 and will include walks throughout the Puget Sound before he leaves for Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27. Educational walk During what he calls his "journey," Rodrigues will educate the public about the vessel, maritime history, green technologies and spinal cord injuries -- Rodrigues is a spinal cord injury survivor -- all the while creating a documentary made up of interviews with citizens and former Kalakala workers in Washington state and the rest of the country, Rodrigues said. He plans to walk 1,000 to 1,800 miles on the trip "primarily within the cities," he said. Rodrigues said he's hoping to meet Obama on May 27 to ask him to declare the vessel a national monument before returning to Puget Sound by June 27, the Kalakala's 75th birthday. Rodrigues has e-mailed the White House about the trip and has not received a response, he said. Built in 1935, the art-deco style Kalakala ferried cars and people between Seattle and Bremerton and Port Angeles and Victoria until 1967. It was placed on the national Register of Historic Places in 2006. Rodrigues purchased it in 2003 in a Seattle bankruptcy sale for $136,560. Now it's docked at a private Hylebos Waterway pier owned by Tacoma-area contractor and investor Carl Anderson. "It is at a critical stage where absolutely no community is giving it safe harbor because of the political risks," Rodrigues said. In October, Rodrigues had announced potential plans to dock the Kalakala in Port Angeles on property owned by Jack Glaubert and Gerald Austin near Railroad Avenue. Their five acres straddles a well-traveled section of Waterfront Trail just east of the Red Lion Hotel and the children's play area at City Pier. The Austins own about 400 feet of waterfront and more than a dozen lots with an assessed value of $17,505, the Clallam County Assessor's Office said Tuesday. A man who lived in a trailer at the site to maintain the property is no longer living there, Austin said Tuesday. "The assessed value does not reflect the true value," said Austin, noting the parcel does not have road access. "You have to open up Railroad Avenue to get the true value," Austin said. "It's very undervalued." Negotiations Austin and Glaubert, who want to sell the entire parcel for $1 million, were willing to let Rodrigues have 100 feet of frontage for $240,000, with $40,000 down and an option to buy the rest, Austin said. "If he had some money, I'd sell him the property," Austin said. Austin's assertion that Rodrigues does not have money is "a wrong statement," Rodrigues said. "It takes financing. It doesn't take money, up-front cash," he said. "It's about going into master planning and drawings and preliminary design review with the city." The city of Port Angeles is not interested in buying the Glaubert-Austin parcel, City Manager Kent Myers added Tuesday. But Rodrigues, president of the Kalakala Alliance Foundation, continues to be, he said Tuesday. He said he would build the marina, tie up the Kalakala and use it as a multi-purpose entertainment vessel, then would repair the splotchy, rusted hull, which hasn't been maintained for 42 years, at a later, undetermined date. A floating-dock marina there would cost less than $2 million, and vessel restoration would be about $11.2 million, he said. Rodrigues has invested his own money in the "Walk of Hope" project, which he estimated would cost "in six figures." He would not say how much has been raised to restore the Kalakala, what's needed to make it a success, or how much money he has raised for the project. "It's a moot point," he said. "We are on a capital funding campaign. We have no need to discuss money related to the project." He also has not released a business plan, which he said he will "never" release to the public. A Butte, Mont., native, Rodrigues was inspired to save the Kalakala by the closure of the Columbia Gardens recreational park east of Butte, which shut down in 1973 to allow expansion of an open pit mine. "Steve Rodrigues was a laborer's son and enjoyed the Columbia Gardens," Rodrigues said. "He decided to dig out of the ditch as a laborer's son. I'm out to build a community project and save something significant and so special that it became the Kalakala. For the last six years, I've done nothing but this."
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Post by EGfleet on Jan 20, 2010 6:34:50 GMT -8
Ugh...anyone else seeing this ending badly?
The shuttle just never seems to be quite landing here...
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Post by hergfest on Jan 20, 2010 11:11:10 GMT -8
Seems to me that he wants someone else to pay for a restoration on his boat. And it isn't going to happen.
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Post by Barnacle on Jan 20, 2010 15:09:55 GMT -8
Rodgrigues has begun referring to himself in the third person. That's never a good sign. Moreover he doesn't seem to get that each 'historic' designation he piles on is going to further limit what he can do to the boat, other than restore it. And there isn't enough left to restore.
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Post by EGfleet on Jan 21, 2010 7:24:43 GMT -8
Raucous meeting with Kalakala owner, who rejects dive park ideaBy Paul Gottlieb Peninsula Daily News PORT ANGELES -- After a Wednesday lunch meeting with ferry Kalakala owner Steve Rodrigues that several participants described as chaotic, a new proposal emerged for the age-battered vessel: Sink it. That way, it could be the main attraction in an underwater dive park proposed off Ediz Hook about a mile from the entrance west of downtown, participants said after the nearly two-hour, invitation-only meeting at Smuggler's Landing restaurant in Port Angeles. But Rodrigues will not consider that option, which would require expensive sandblasting and complete detoxification of the vessel, "until full funding efforts are done in 2010 and 2011," he said in a later interview. "There is no such alternative until after we exhaust preservation above water," he said of the proposal, offered at the meeting by Andrew May, horticulturist and Peninsula Daily News' gardening columnist. Rodrigues has suggested refurbishing the Kalakala so it's usable as a multipurpose entertainment vessel that would call Port Angeles Harbor home -- though the permitting process would be long and complex, and Rodrigues did not divulge business plans outlining how he would achieve his heartfelt goal or a source of funding to get there. He estimated it would cost about $15 million to make the vessel usable, meeting participants said. The Kalakala ran Puget Sound and Port Angeles-Victoria routes from 1935 to 1967 before being decommissioned and sold to become an Alaskan fish processor, and the splotchy hull -- returned to Seattle 11 years ago -- has not been maintained. Rodrigues, a 58-year-old Tacoma-area civil engineer, bought the art-deco-style vessel for $136,560 in 2003 in a bankruptcy sale in Seattle. But Wednesday's meeting was about more than the ferry. Rodriques' presentation Participants were as upset as much by how Rodrigues presented himself as they were by his plans -- or lack thereof -- for a vessel whose mural-drawn visage graces the side of a building in Port Angeles. They left lunch literally shaking their heads and saying the dive park proposal may be the only way to make Port Angeles the Kalakala's final resting place. At one point, a frustrated Rodrigues referred to "the frickin' community." He was referring to the North Olympic Peninsula community, said participants Terry Neske, Allan Bentley, Charlie Ferris and Bill Zynda, all of Port Angeles. "It was not at all that community," Rodrigues said later, insisting Wednesday's meeting participants "were focused on one thing, sinking my ship." Asked how the meeting went, Rodrigues said, "not good, not good." Indeed, the get-together "was chaos," Neske said. "We asked a bazillion questions, and he did not answer one of them. The only thing he wanted was community support, but he did everything to prevent it." Said Bentley: "He made an assumption that we were all on the same sheet of music as him. It went over everyone's head. He rambled." Ferris' take: "I felt alienated. I've never seen a project that needs a front man more." On his way out, Bob Harbick said, "Making [the Kalakala] seaworthy at this time is not practical." Apology, business plan Zynda, a longtime Kalakala preservation supporter and organizer of the meeting, said Rodrigues apologized to the group. Rodrigues finally did agree to make public a business plan, Zynda said, pointing to Rodrigues' "great love and passion for that boat" as "his good side." City Manager Ken Myers said after the meeting that he plans to set up a meeting with proponents of the Ediz Hook dive park so they can discuss the Kalakala option. "At least we'll get some answers to [the dive park] question," Myers said. Rodrigues plans to be in Port Angeles again on Feb. 18 to kick off his "Walk of Hope" national tour to drum up support for restoring the vessel, he said. www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20100121/NEWS/301219992******************** As an aside, the Kalakala as a dive park wouldn't last terribly long without substantial strengthening of the superstructure. What people don't realize is that Peabody built the ferry on the cheap, using (at the time) unknown construction methods and fairly thin sheet metal. Sink the Kalakala in salt water and within a few years it is likely the entire superstructure would collapse.
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Post by BreannaF on Jan 27, 2010 22:15:27 GMT -8
Just to summarize an article in today's Peninsula Daily News, the WA Dept of Natural Resources said NO to the idea of sinking the Kalakala for a dive park. The thing is, it wasn't Mr Rodrigues' idea to sink it, it was what (I thought) was a sarcastic comment made at a public meeting a couple of days ago. Well, now we know.
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