Kalakala must move, survey affirms

Much like a Florida recount, a recent survey by the Army Corps of Engineers shows the nose of the Kalakala is poking 32 feet into federal navigation lanes -- not 50.

But the survey, made at the request of the city of Seattle, indicates that the historic ferry still needs to move -- or at least find a way to turn so it lies within the legal zone.

So far, though, there have been no complaints, and more important, no fines, while everyone tries to find a peaceful solution.

"We are consulting with the Department of Natural Resources and the Corps of Engineers on assessing how much of a hazard for the navigation environment they think this is," said Alan Justad, spokesman for the city's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use.

In September, a citywide aerial survey found that the bow of the ferry, a Seattle symbol long before the Space Needle came along in 1962, was in shipping lanes 50 feet farther than allowed.

That meant potential fines of $75 a day unless the Kalakala moved from the space it has occupied since its rescue two

years ago from a muddy Alaskan grave.

The boat's seemingly small infraction also triggered a hunt for new moorage and a crisis over its future in Seattle.

Today, a committee from Port Angeles will meet with Peter Bevis, director of the Kalakala Foundation, to discuss acquiring and renovating the ferry, which would become a centerpiece of harbor development for the Olympic Peninsula town.

"The committee is very eager to get down to the important stuff, like how to raise money, the time element, could it really work, and do we have a place to put it," said Louann Yager, acting director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

It's not lost on Bill Zynda, a Port Angeles civic booster spearheading the effort, that only last week a donor presented the Kalakala Foundation with a rare radar that once guided the boat.

"I was at the Kalakala Foundation's office (in Seattle) on Saturday when they were presented with the radar; I think I saw it kind of swing around and lock in on Port Angeles," Zynda said.

Meanwhile, a second bus full of Port Angelenos will visit the boat in Seattle Dec. 2. Their interest was sparked by the enthusiasm of the first busload last month, Zynda said.

"You don't catch the spirit until you expose yourself to the boat," Zynda said. "Usually, you aren't ever the same again when you see this boat."

When it was launched in 1935, the ferry was an art-deco, streamlined vision of the future. In 1948, it became the world's first commercial radar-carrying vessel when the top secret World War II technology was declassified.

After its retirement in 1967, however, the Kalakala wound up as a fish processor, forgotten and beached in Alaskan mud until Bevis, a Fremont sculptor, saw it on a fishing trip in 1988.

Two years ago, he realized a dream to bring the boat home.

A search for the Raytheon radar that once crowned the Kalakala's bridge ended last Saturday when Bill Mitchell, an Anacortes artist and collector of old Navy paraphernalia, donated a twin.

Mitchell had kept the radar around his house for 20 years. He said it came off an old Liberty transportation ship that was scrapped in Seattle in 1967. A veteran, Mitchell said Veterans Day seemed an appropriate time to donate the device.

Like the garnish on a sundae, he said, "it is the cherry on the ferry."