Collision course | WSF terminates contract for streamlining reservations

Nasi Peretz, CEO of Anchor Operating Systems — the former vendor on the project — told Salish Current the abrupt termination of WSF’s so-called Ticketing and Reservations Modernization project was a “complete surprise.” Anchor is a leading designer and operator of such systems across the U.S. and abroad.

The ticketing overhaul grew out of then-Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2023 visit to Lopez Island after which he called the state of ferry service “unacceptable” and said he understood the “heartbreak and anger” of residents who rely on WSF as their primary highway.

Inslee pledged a nine-point plan to upgrade ferry reliability and jumpstart crew availability, aligning himself with San Juan County Council member Jane Fuller’s detailed description of the issues.

San Juan County Council member Justin Paulsen said he and the rest of the county government were “thrilled” when Inslee later fast-tracked the ticket modernization project sleeve of the program.

“The governor heard our voices,” he said. “It is distressing to see progress abruptly stalled to, by their estimate, late 2027 or early 2028.”

Of the $3 million spent, Tom Thiersch, chair of the Jefferson County Ferry Advisory Committee, wonders how much would be recoverable under new contracts. “WSF failed to keep us up to date,” he said.

“Why was Anchor terminated without warning?” he asked. “Were there fatal flaws in their execution? Did WSF’s top management order — or even know about — this?”

San Juan County Council member Keri McVeigh emailed Salish Current that the situation “requires better communication if WSF didn’t wish reputational harm.” She stressed that if public funds are now at risk, “the public needs to know why.”

Shifting goalposts

Anchor Operating Systems is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hornblower Group, an international operator of sightseeing and dinner cruise vessels.

Anchor provides cloud-based operating systems for ticketing, reservations, and third-party integration services. Anchor currently carries 107 clients, 25 of which are ferry systems.

“We were on the 10-yard line,” Anchor’s CEO Nasi Peretz said of their contract fulfillment at WSF. “We received nothing but positive feedback from the WSF.”

Anchor was initially hired in 2024 by then-ticketing and reservations manager Brian Churchwell, working day-to-day with program manager DeWayne Moats. When Churchwell retired in 2025, project supervision shifted to Jeff Masumoto.

Constructing a system of this size — WSF moves some 20 million passengers per year — is a massive undertaking requiring teams of engineers working sequentially through stages of development and testing to debug key components thoroughly before the integration phase could begin.

“In 30 years in this business, I never saw a vendor perform at such a level,” Moats said of Anchor’s work ethic. “They moved mountains. They were very generous with their time.”

Self-inflicted wounds?

Masumoto’s arrival grated on the team, according to Moats. Churchwell’s stepwise “testing and debugging before integration” work plans were discarded.

“Masumoto wanted everything,” said Moats. “He required dozens of integrations to be done under impossible deadlines, frustrating the vendor and interfering with the schedules and deliverables.”

In November 2025, Masumoto removed Moats from the project, leading Moats to conclude that Anchor was being set up to fail “first by pivoting the entire schedule to focus on noncritical milestones while I was on vacation, and since then by constantly moving the goalposts.”

In February 2026, WSF briefed the Ferry Advisory Committee members on progress, and according to Thiersch, there was no mention of the contract modifications.

On March 6, Masumoto terminated Anchor’s contract, promising to break the project into “smaller, more manageable components,” with completion slated for “late 2027 or early 2028.”

“New contracts and new completion dates? That’s an awful idea, costing time and taxpayer dollars,” said Moats.

Brian Hodak, another former veteran WSF project management professional who learned his management skills while working at Toyota, told Salish Current that he too had experienced difficulties when Masumoto took over a project mid-stream. “I was working on the Enterprise Asset Management system — a program to upgrade and modernize WSF’s outdated system for vessel maintenance and compliance with regulations. We were correcting for inefficiencies and overbidding. When Mr. Masumoto got involved, it ground to a halt. It was like talking to a brick wall.”

Masumoto declined to comment to Salish Current. WSF External Relations confirmed the delays but did not comment on Masumoto’s alterations.

The road ahead

If WSF intends to request a proposal for new contracts for ticketing modernization, there are likely to be qualified applicants from the original pool and others to offer advice.

Orcas Island’s Carson Scheidel of Smartstubs designs ticketing and reservation systems for public marine transit. He said that WSF’s project has continued through “two governors, a couple of million dollars, with nothing to show for it.” Scheidel was a bidder on the original RFP and would likely bid again.

David Robison of Electric Lexicon LLC, urges WSF to focus on “usability,” an industry term describing how quickly users learn a system, how efficiently they perform tasks, how easily they remember the interface, the severity of errors and the subjective pleasure of use. Rolbison consults independently with the ferry advisory committee.

Thiersch, like San Juan County’s McVeigh, feels frustrated by the lack of transparency at WSF and intends to file public records requests for internal communications leading up to the termination.

Paulsen, too, is seeking deeper access to the decisions. “It may be desirable to request a report from WSF’s audit function, which is managed through the Washington State Department of Transportation Internal Audit Office. Whatever the reasons for the disruption, my first goal is to get this project back on track.”