By Tom Morphet
Local shore excursion tour operators and Four Seasons Marine Services
of Seward are scrambling to plan catamaran service between Haines and Skagway this summer,
filling a gap that opened Monday when Chilkat Cruises and Tours of Haines notified Four
Seasons it wouldn’t continue leasing boats.
"The infrastructure and clients are here. It’s just a matter
of reorganizing," said Bart Henderson, president of tour company Chilkat Guides. The
Fairweather Express and Yukon Queen will remain in use under the new operation.
Chilkat Cruises, which has leased the two boats from Four Seasons in
previous years, also won’t operate the Chilkat Express, its own high-speed catamaran
used by Chilkat Guides to get Skagway-based cruise passengers to Glacier Point in Chilkat
Inlet.
The three vessels have provided a critical link for shore excursion
tour companies in Haines, which bring as many as 50,000 passengers to town from Skagway.
Officials with Chilkat Cruises referred questions to Tom Crandall,
president of parent company Klukwan, Inc. Messages left for Crandall were not returned
Tuesday. Chilkat Cruises has operated boats in Lynn Canal for 10 years, taking over a
service started by Glen Jacobson of Haines as a water taxi.
The shutdown decision apparently came at a weekend meeting of the
Klukwan, Inc. board of directors. The company also will end local land tours, Klukwan
officials told local partners.
Coming just weeks before the start of the cruise season, the decision
jolted companies that do business with Chilkat Cruises, including the Bamboo Room
Restaurant, which until this week was anticipating providing lunches for tours and dinners
for night cruises. "It’s quite a shock," said owner Christy Tengs-Fowler.
Tom Tougas, president of Four Seasons, said he’s working with
Haines tour operators, including Henderson and Karen Hess of River Adventures, to provide
service comparable to that offered last year.
"Bart and Karen are committed to having an operation, but because
we own the boats and we’ve been in business 25 years, we’re working with them to
come up with the structure," Tougas said.
Tougas suggested possible operation changes. Basing the boats in Haines
meant making at least two empty runs a day, an extra expense magnified by the rising cost
of fuel, he said. Schedules will be made to fill boats, he said. "Where there’s
a demand that justifies the expense, we’ll look at those dates and operations…
We won’t run a schedule where we run every hour and only have four people on the
boat."
Tougas said Chilkat Cruises had delayed signing a lease for the boats
since November. "They were delaying and delaying. We were getting pretty
nervous." The local company had made its lease payments, but owed some maintenance on
the vessels. "They’ve been in a tight cash situation all winter, and that
delayed their paying end-of-charter costs from last year."
Tougas said Klukwan, Inc. officials told him the shutdown was based on
a shortage of cash for start-up expenses. For tour companies like Chilkat Cruises, annual
start-up costs are considerable, he said.
Tougas, whose company has 16 boats in Alaska and Hawaii, said his
involvement in the operation may continue into the future. "I think it’s
open."
Henderson said he would start into negotiations with Klukwan, Inc. to
discuss the future of the high-speed Chilkat Express. Use of the vessel replaced flying
large volumes of passengers between Glacier Point and Skagway.
Chilkat Cruises employed as many as 50 workers in previous summers.
Henderson said he thought the numbers of workers on boats would remain about the same.
Henderson this week met with Haines Borough officials about using the Port Chilkoot Dock
lightering float to dock boats.
