Sayville Ferry Service
41 River Road - PO Box 626 • Sayville, NY 11782-0626
(631) 589-0810 Capt. Ken Stein
FAX (631) 589-0843
Office of Technical and Information Services
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
1331 F Sheet NW, Sate 1000
Washington, DC 20004-1111
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Sayville Ferry Service, a member of the Passenger Vessel Association, submits these comments regarding your efforts to develop accessibility guidelines for passenger vessels, as published in the Federal Register of November 26, 2004. Please include these comments in the official record of both of your dockets as well as the corresponding U.S. Department of Transportation Docket.
Sayville Ferry Service has been serving Fire Island for over 100 years. It is truly a family owned company since the days when we first began ferrying people to the island. That was back in 1894 when the trip was made by sailboat for 10 cents. Much has changed since those early days. Today Sayville Ferry Service has a fleet of modem all-weather vessels for the fast and safe transportation of both day visitors and seasonal residents.
What remains unchanged over the life of this company is our being primarily a seasonal operation, with only fifty employees during the summer. Our "season' is basically from mid May to the middle of September. While we do maintain a very limited schedule during the rest of the year we are contacted to serve the summer communities of Cherry Grove, the Fire Island Pines, Water Island and the National Seashore at Sailors Haven/Sunken Forest. These locations are controlled, respectively, by a local township, two private property associations, and the National Park Service. To accomplish this our assets include eight vessels of varying capacities of which only three are authorized to exceed 150 passengers (see attached). None of these have more than two passenger decks. The sole purpose of these vessels is to transport people to and from the aforementioned Fire Island communities. We do not maintain any of these vessels for vehicular transportation, overnight cruises, sightseeing, whale watching, overnight trips or dinner cruises. We are strictly a passenger-only operation.
Very few of our ridership is handicapped. Those that do rely upon a wheelchair gain easy accessibility to a boat’s lower deck by virtue of a ramp which we can easily position for their safe and effortless boarding. Once aboard, they will note that our lower decks are well ventilated, comfortable and with windows for an enjoyable ride. Based upon our experience, any provision requiring that passenger vessels must provide vertical access between decks would pose a genuine hardship on our operation. Elevates and/or lifts are enormously expensive and, in our case, technically infeasible and probably unsafe due to the original design of these vessels.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the discussion on this topic.
Sincerely,
Ken Stein III
President
Fire Island Clipper
Official Number 611947
Length 73 feet
Gross Tons 71
Horsepower 1575 (Diesel)
Passenger Capacity: 343
Fire Island Empress
Official Number 1152331
Length 71 feet
Gross Tone 75
Horsepower 1800 (Diesel)
Passenger Capacity: 270
South Bay Clipper
Official Number 1038799
Length 80 feet
Gross Toss 63
Horsepower 2445 (Diesel)
Passenger Capacity: 412