Staten Island Ferry boat problems?

  Eyewitness News

(New York - WABC, April 26, 2007) (WABC) -- If you had a car in the shop four months of the year, you'd say you bought a lemon. So what did New York City buy when it paid $120 million for three new Staten Island Ferry boats?

One of them has been out of service for weeks, even months at a time.

The Investigators Jim Hoffer has an exclusive report.

The city says it's just working out the kinks on its new flagship ferry boat, yet we've discovered since the Molinari started carrying passengers more than two years ago, it has been out of service, on average, one out of every three days.

New York spent $40 million dollars to build a new Staten Island Ferry boat. The "Guy Molinari" was supposed to launch a new era in state of the art, super reliable ferry service.

But here's where you're likely to see the Molinari: in the maintenance dock. Since the new vessel began carrying passengers 27 months ago, mechanical records show it has been out of service 265 days. In other words, unavailable 38 percent of the time.

Dr. Robert Warren, marine engineering consultant: "This just doesn't cut it."

Dr. Robert Warren is a marine engineer with 25 years experience designing boats for the Navy.

"That wouldn't be satisfactory to me and I can't imagine it would be satisfactory to anyone in the ferry operator business around Staten Island," he said.

Captain James Desimone, chief operations officer: "I'm happy with the way things are working out, this is nothing out of the norm."

The operations chief for the Staten Island Ferry insists the mechanical problems are typical of new boats, especially prototypes like the Molinari.

"Anyone who has been in this business as long as I have knows this is what you expect with new ships," he said.

Jim Hoffer: "You are telling me you're satisfied with this boat not being available to carry passengers because of mechanical problems one out of every three days?"
Captain Disimone: "No I'm satisfied with the boat because it was the first of the class and the city of New York knew what we were getting into. There hasn't been a ship built that hasn't gone through these type of teething problems."
Hoffer: "We're in the 3rd year of service and you're telling me this boat is still going through teething problems?"
Captain Disimone: "Yes."

"I don't think when you are talking 35-40% unavailability that that is really acceptable," Dr. Warren said.

Our investigation has learned that the Molinari's mechanical problems have required major modifications, including the installation of a temporary generator while repairs were made to the ships original ones that kept shutting down. And recently the Molinari had its propulsion cooling system completely replaced which kept the Molinari in the maintenance yard for 13 out of the last 16 weeks.

"I see nothing unusual here at all," Captain Disimone said.

Captain Kirk Greiner, maritime engineer: "It's unusual very unusual."

In his 20 years with the Coast Guard's inspection program, Captain Kirk Greiner says he never saw a new boat out of service as much as the Molinari.

"You may experience problems in the first month or two, after that you shouldn't have any problems at all ... in other words, they're not getting their money's worth," Greiner said.

The Molinari's new sister ships the Spirit of America and the Marchi have had their share of problems too, requiring generator and cooling systems modifications. But by far, the Molinari has the worst performance record -- out of service one out of every three days.

Jim Hoffer: "Do we have a lemon?"
Captain Disimone: "We don't have a lemon, the other two vessels speak for themselves. The city is happy with its investment."

The city says the cost of repairs for the Molinari are covered by the ship's warranty. However, sources inside the DOT tell us that because of the boat's continued problems, the city has been unable to retire one of the older boats that the Molinari is supposed to replace.

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