Couple floats idea of Gig Harbor-to-Seattle ferry run

Would commuters spend $800 a month to take a small passenger ferry from Gig Harbor to Seattle to avoid traffic jams on Interstate 5?

That's what a Gig Harbor couple are proposing in their attempt to begin jet-boat service from the Kitsap Peninsula aboard their 38-foot, 12-passenger Gig.

In comparison, the passenger ferry Chinook, which serves Vashon Island, is 143 feet long and can carry 350 passengers.

Patrick Bender, the Gig's captain, said 12 people need to commit to the service before it will begin, and so far there's been interest but no customers.

The idea is the brainchild of Bender and David and Marcy Joseph, who own Pacific Northwest Marine Services in Tacoma, and Gig Harbor Rent-A-Boat, which rents kayaks and power boats.

"We were just baseballing it around and David and I came up with the idea and went for it," Bender said. "It's an hour drive and a lot of people don't like the drive."

Dividing $800 by 20 workdays a month comes out to $40 a day. He said with the price of gas, the tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and parking in downtown Seattle, the ferry wouldn't be much more expensive than driving — and a lot less stressful.

Bender said the trip by ferry is about 40 miles and would take about an hour.

Passenger-ferry service in the Sound has not been without controversy.

In Kitsap County, for example, measures to pay for passenger-ferry service to Seattle have been put on the ballot twice and both times failed.

A private company, Aqua Express, offered passenger-ferry service from Kingston to downtown Seattle until October 2005, when low ridership and high fuel costs prompted it to abandon the route.

And Kingston Express, a nonprofit corporation, is trying to put together a plan to provide foot-ferry service between Kingston and Seattle.

The Kingston Express plan calls for a small ferry that will begin with 80 passengers a day, growing by one passenger a week. The service could break even with 500 daily passengers, said Nels Sultan, who heads Kingston Express.

He said round-trip tickets would be about $10, which is cheaper than taking the car ferry to Edmonds and catching the Sounder commuter train.

Add to the mix King County, which is putting together a plan to take over the Vashon Island passenger-ferry route from the state. It also could consider extending service to the Kitsap Peninsula.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054

or sgilmore@seattletimes.com