 Attempt to Save Seastreak
Gee -- there was rail comnnuter service to Atlantic Highlands until the late
1960s . . .
Cheers,
Jim
December 18, 2007
Asbury Park Press
Local effort being made to buy N.Y. ferry service catamarans
Rumson man trying to avert sale of four boats overseas
By MICHAEL L. DIAMOND
BUSINESS WRITER
A Wall Street executive said Monday he is working with local investors to
buy four high-speed catamarans used by SeaStreak America Inc. to ferry
passengers from Monmouth County to New York.
The possible bid from a group led by Michael Gooch, a Rumson resident and
chief executive officer of the brokerage service GFI Group Inc., could ease
fears that the boats will be sold to Trinidad and Tobago as part of a
bankruptcy reorganization.
"Myself and other investors are not really, frankly, interested in being
ferry operators," Gooch said. "We're just interested in seeing a quality
ferry service continue."
The move comes as the future of the ferry service remains in doubt.
SeaStreak's parent company, Sea Containers Ltd. of Bermuda, filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy more than a year ago after it became burdened by debt.
Among the creditors are unnamed banks which own the high-speed boats and
charter them to SeaStreak.
Reports surfaced last summer that Trinidad & Tobago was prepared to offer
$30 million for the boats to begin ferry service in the Caribbean nation.
Some 2,000 people a day take the boats - 400-passenger vessels that travel
more than 40 mph - from Highlands and Atlantic Highlands to Manhattan, and
the possibility of losing the service has unnerved them.
Commuters say the ferry ride gets them to New York in about half the time it
would take if they drove or took the train. Many of them said it is a major
reason they live in Monmouth County. They worry that replacement boats would
be much slower.
Losing the boats "would be an absolute disaster," said Robert Picard, who
takes the ferry each day to get from his Rumson home to his office in
midtown Manhattan. "There are no boats around that could replace those
four."
In addition to working with investors, Gooch said he has talked to a ferry
operator about taking over the service and investing in it. He declined to
name the operator. But he said he is close to making what he called a
"preliminary, nonbinding bid."
Gooch said there is little to prevent the vessels from being sold to
Trinidad and Tobago - or to any other buyer. So local legislators have asked
government agencies to intervene if the vessels are sold to a foreign
country - if only to give Gooch and his investment group more time.
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. asked the U.S. Maritime Administration to
block the vessels' sale to a foreign country. But Shannon Russell, a
spokeswoman for the agency, said, the agency only regulates the sale of U.S.
vessels that weigh more than 1,000 gross tons, which is bigger than the
SeaStreak boats.
each day to get from his Rumson home to his office in midtown Manhattan.
"There are no boats around that could replace those four."
In addition to working with investors, Gooch said he has talked to a ferry
operator about taking over the service and investing in it. He declined to
name the operator. But he said he is close to making what he called a
"preliminary, nonbinding bid."
Gooch said there is little to prevent the vessels from being sold to
Trinidad & Tobago - or to any other buyer. So local legislators have asked
government agencies to intervene if the vessels are sold to a foreign
country - if only to give Gooch and his investment group more time.
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. asked the U.S. Maritime Administration to
block the vessels' sale to a foreign country. But Shannon Russell, a
spokeswoman for the agency, said, the agency only regulates the sale of U.S.
vessels that weigh more than 1,000 gross tons, which is bigger than the
SeaStreak boats.
"There's nothing that the Maritime Administration can do to stop this sale
if, in fact, it happens," Russell said. "It's not against the law. It's
nothing that we regulate."
In New Jersey, state Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr., Assemblywoman Jennifer
Beck and Assemblyman Sean Kean, all R-Monmouth, last week wrote Attorney
General Anne Milgram and asked her to investigate legal grounds to block the
vessels' sale to a foreign country.
Lee Moore, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said attorneys are
reviewing the letter.
Gooch said other hurdles remain. Namely, the local investment group won't
pay more than what the boats are worth, making it unlikely that it would get
involved in a bidding war that would make it a money-losing venture.
"Individuals are willing to put up money to save the service, but not lose
money," he said. "They want to know if they did invest, it would be
professionally run and the economics make sense. We're trying to put that
together."
| 
