Jan. 19, 2003 – Mermaid Ferries owner Chris Elliott says low passenger numbers and what he alleges to be unethical behavior by his competitor — something the competitor denies — prompted his decision to cut back the company's daily trips between St. Croix and St. Thomas to four days a week.
Elliott said his boat, the Calypso I, was losing money on its weekday runs. He said the vessel, which can carry up to 356 passengers, had a Crucian Christmas Festival season high of 171 on board for a single trip.
Since then, he said, the average ridership has been dismal.
"It's been so bad I haven't even checked it lately," Elliott said on Friday. "Basically, there is enough market here for one ferry," he said, referring to his competition, the V.I. Fast Ferries vessel Salacia.
For the time being, Calypso is running Friday through Monday, making one round trip a day, except for Saturdays, when there are two trips.
The Salacia makes three round trips Thursday through Sunday and two trips Monday through Wednesday.
Elliott said he has been somewhat disappointed by the lack of community support for Mermaid, which is owned locally. (V.I. Fast Ferries is owned by Boston Harbor Cruises, based in Boston.) He acknowledged, though, that his company's service, which began Sept. 2, has been intermittent over the last two months.
"At first I was thinking we were not doing a good enough job with our maintenance," he said, "but then we were having some vandalism done, and it started after Boston Harbor decided it was coming."
He said he has no proof of who was responsible, but Calypso's steering system was sabotaged twice, subsequently requiring a U.S. Coast Guard inspection that shut down service for several days.
Elliott also charged that a Fast Ferries employee threatened him twice. He said he filed a complaint with the Port Authority and that the incidents were addressed at a VIPA meeting between the two companies last week and there have been no further problems in that regard.
Kevin Matthews, Boston Harbor Cruises director of operations, dismissed Elliott's allegations concerning V.I. Fast Ferries, saying his company's record is impeccable and it is renowned for reliable, dependable service.
Regarding Elliott's accusations, "Somebody who may be a little bit frustrated may want to focus on his business a little more, rather than looking at other people's business," Matthews said on Friday.
He said Boston Harbor Cruises is a 77-year-old company doing business up and down the mainland eastern seaboard and that its federal contracts entail close ethical scrutiny by the government.
Matthews said the Salacia, which can hold up to 600 passengers, does not break even on its weekday trips, either. On weekdays, about 40 to 50 passengers make the run between islands per day, he said, and the numbers are about double that on the weekends. But he said the vessel was right on line for the Crucian Festival with the volume of business done last year.
"The customer needs to know there's a consistent, reliable product there," Matthews said. "We encourage first-class service, whether it's from us or any of our competitors," he said, noting that passengers who have a bad experience on one ferry could be deterred from using any ferry service and opt for another mode of transportation instead.
Elliott said that despite the low ridership on Calypso, he plans to stick it out. Until the Salacia returns to Boston for its summer season, he said, "we'll just have to make some adjustments."
He added: "People here, if they want service in the summer, need to support the local guy. If they continue to support Boston Harbor, that just limits my initiative."
When asked about rumors that he intends to sell the Calypso, Elliott said an operator from Guadeloupe approached him about leasing the vessel. "That's still up in the air, but if I did, it would be replaced," he said.
Matthews said V.I. Fast Ferries has a seven-year lease from the Port Authority for its homeport facilities at Gallows Bay on St. Croix and has invested upwards of $200,000 in the property. The company began its second winter season of service in the territory on Dec. 10 and is scheduled to head back to Boston on May 5.
"Absolutely we're coming back," Matthews said, and maybe not just from November to April. "I'd like to hope we can slowly expand" the length of the season, he said.
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