mv Coho's website

[jcachristian2000]

Hey, check out what they have done to the Black Ball website. They realy improved it!

Now you can have a virtue reality tour of the inside of the vessle and look at a few pictures posted on the site!

[Balfour]

Yeah I went and saw that. The website is nice, but the inside of the ship could be better.

[Ferryman]

I think her interior looks not bad. It looks like it was well kept but it's definitely is really plain. Even the engine room looks nice and tidy. I can see why they've been keeping her as long as they have.

[NMcKay]

yeah. but because shes the only vessel the company has, they want to take care of her, they probably dont want her ever to go out of service because of a breakdown.

[Curtis]

Eventually they need to get the new 120 car ferry going plus if BCF took over Black Ball Transport and ran the Coho they would probably either modify her or get a new vessel running there probably BCF would put a bow door on the Coho if they ran the run exactly like the North and QPR

[Koastal Karl]

I have been on the Coho 3 times and she is a neat little ship. She rolls alot too, even when it's calm out she does. The two times I have been to Port Angeles on the Coho it is always windy, it always seems to be windy in Port Angeles. But it is a neat little town. Both times we stayed in a hotel that is right on the water and we have seen the Coho and the Victoria Express coming and going. Nice to wake up to the sound of the horn on the Coho as she arrives. But the Coho is pretty plain looking! Green ceilings and plain hard floors, red and orange seats. But then again so is alot of WSF like that.

[Balfour]

Yeah, BCF has nicer ships on the inside.

[Low Light Mike]

The Nanaimo newspaper "Harbour City Star" had an editorial re fuel surcharges.

This was too funny: They referred to the Victoria-Port Angeles ferry as the "MV Salmon".

what an example of poor journalism.

[Balfour]

the media can make some pretty bad mistakes that makes things sound funny

[Shane]

one time in the powell river news paper years ago they called the north island princess the north island queen.
they have made the site pretty nice, the old site wasnt that good.

[NMcKay]

try getting stuff that says Harbourlinks.

[Low Light Mike]

The business-paper "business examiner" on Vancouver Island had a 1-page profile on Mr. Bill McKay....aka Harbourlinks (sic) Operations Manager.

A well written article, I thought....had some biographical notes on Mr. McKay.....but the article did not mention his son.

[NMcKay]

got a link or pic?

[Low Light Mike]

cut/paste from Business Examiner website:
---------------------
By Merv Unger

The Business Examiner
Aug 02 2005

a convert is the most dedicated person you can find, then Bill McKay sounds like an evangelist promoting Nanaimo's HarbourLynx walk-on ferry.
Much like the business man who liked his shaver so much that he bought the company, McKay liked the harbour-to-harbour ferry service so much he went to work for it.
That has been one of the best decision of his life, says the just-turned 50 operations manager.
He took over when HarbourLynxs was floundering in rough seas, with shareholders all trying to find higher ground, wanting to protect their investment.
They desperately needed a firm hand at the helm, and that's what McKay has provided since joining the company in April, 2004.
The company's structure was shuffled and the major focus was put on having an unfettered management approach. That saw Sheldon Eggon, owner of Vancouver Tourism Transit Group take over as general manager, with McKay as operations manager.
"That made a big difference," says Ted Carson, one of the principles in HarbourLynx. That brought order to the operations, he adds.
VTT Group operates Charter Bus Lines, Quick Shuttle and YVR Transport in Vancouver.
Now the board of directors provides governance rather than management.
McKay has been in the marine industry since he left high school.
"The early '70s is when you could graduate from high school and walk right into a good paying job," he says about working on tug boats.
He moved to passenger ships in the early '90s with Vancouver's Seabus and then the Albion ferry. Both are now under the helm of TransLink which now transports nine million passengers annually with small craft.
McKay's family connection on Protection Island had him using the HarbourLynxs on a regular basis, commuting from his home in Maple Ridge. "I used up about six books of tickets," he says.
So, when he saw the company advertising for an operations manager, he jumped at the opportunity. He hasn't been sorry.
It hasn't been a bowl of cherries, there have been challenges, including the marketing of the ferry service.
"But I've had some good teachers - Quality Foods, Devon Transport (Budget Cars) and the charter business lines in Vancouver," he says.
When he took the job last year the challenge was to break the 300-passenger-a-day level. Now 700 a day is a quite regular occurrence.
One of the most successful initiatives has been to involve the local community, he says. "We've jumped in with both feet. It doesn't matter whether it's the Grade 4 class, Rotary Clubs or the Hospital Foundation. It gets our company's presence in front of the community," McKay says.
"In Nanaimo, 57 per cent of our arrivals are coming to visit family and friends. So if we become accepted as the transportation avenue, they become our best advertisers."
McKay wants to do a lot more research into the marketing aspect as to the type of customers they serve. At present it looks like commuters, regular users and tourists each make up about a third of the passengers.
To that end, HabourLynx has started what McKay calls real on-the-ground advertising in Vancouver, trying to break into the tourist market with a specifically targetted message. That has involved bringing some of the front-line troops in the tourism industry to Nanaimo.
"It's the desk clerks at the hotel and the people at the tourism counters who will get out the message," says McKay. More such familiarization trips are planned.
But that campaign has to be matched on this side of the water, he says.
"We've got to stop selling ourselves short. I keep hearing quotes about 'well, we're not quite market ready yet,' or 'we need to focus on the fact that we're the hub, he says. That permeates throughout the community, including city hall and elected officials. It's that feeling of we're not ready yet, McKay says.
"No, we're the centre of activity," we have to market that way.
When the chief consierge of the Hyatt Regency says "I am so in love wih Nanaimo. I will so recommend it to our guests," then we see we don't need to under sell ourselves.
"That's from people who see us as a destination, not a hub," McKay says.
"When we had the Dragon Boat races here, people came from Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan, and they were firm that this is the best possible venue, with reasonable accommodation, great hospitality, facilities close by at such a great venue.
"That's exactly what the tourism industry looks for - transportation, accommodation, food and shopping. We've got it," he says.
HarbourLynx is not standing pat, by any means. The company is looking at some major changes, including possibly a couple of new smaller vessels with one third less capacity while having significantly lower operating costs.
That could translate into other opportunities for the company.
"For instance, TransLink is looking at a smaller service to Bowen Island. Nothing has been determined yet, but the interest is there. There's a lot of interest from Sechelt, Gibsons and Squamish.
"A lot of people are asking about a Victoria run. If we keep our present boat, it could be redeployed as a Victoria tourist product from May to September," he says.
The top attraction in Vancouver now is day trips to Victoria, so that offers new opportunities.
In the meantime, he is devoting a lot of effort to working with local tourism officials to get the message out that Nanaimo is where it's at.â ¨

[NMcKay]

yeah, i have a copy of that, that im going to scan into the computer. actually we have like 30 copies that someone from the BE brought into the office.