Island Ways | Staffing woes, mechanical issues plague Nantucket Steamship Authority

A combination of ongoing staffing woes and mechanical breakdowns have led to a rough start to the busy season for the Steamship Authority.

The M/V Eagle is on its way to be dry-docked for at least a couple of days while its bow thruster is repaired, leaving smaller vessels to fill in on the route while it’s fixed. Because of that, the boat line has had to accommodate vehicle reservations that were affected by the car-ferry cancellation.

“We have quite a backlog, so we’re working through it as we speak,” SSA communications director Sean Driscoll said Wednesday.

New vehicle reservations between Hyannis and Nantucket have been on hold since the Eagle broke down. The holdup was only supposed to last the weekend, but since the freight boats that have taken the Eagle’s place are not able to carry as many vehicles, their reservations are spilling over to other trips.

Now Nantucket to Hyannis trips won’t be available to book again until Saturday, Driscoll said, and new Hyannis to Nantucket trips will remain on hold through May 16.

Mechanical failures aren’t the only thing hurting the boat line.

A lack of pilots and captains since last year is leading to interruptions in summer service, again. Last year, the late trip on the fast ferry Iyanough was canceled throughout the summer due to a lack of staff available to run the route.

This year, there are signs of the same. Driscoll said the first late trip will be delayed until at least June 16. The reason is the late trip requires a new crew to come in for that shift. Usually, two crews rotate on and off the boat, but the late trip would require a third.

“Keeping it a double crew until at least mid-June saves us a little bit, but we’re tight. And it’s going to be tight all summer again. There’s just no way around it,” Driscoll said.

Several employees have completed pilot exams since last summer, Driscoll said, and that is helpful, but when someone moves up in the ranks, that just leaves a hole somewhere else that may be just as difficult to fill.

“It’s a never-ending cycle, it’s never a static thing. Especially now because the workforce is aging, captains are retiring. We bring pilots up (to captain), then we need more pilots,” Driscoll said.

“We did have a good crop come up last year, but every year we’re going to have retirements and that system is going to have to keep churning. It’s just a matter of how many people are leaving, how much notice we have, how long it takes to bring people up,” he said. “You can’t just go down to Walmart and pick up a ferry captain, it’s not that simple.”

It’s a challenge the Steamship Authority has been facing for years now, said Rob Ranney, Nantucket’s representative on the SSA board of governors. He said the boat line continues to attend local job fairs and recruit prospective employees, but the industry is not an attractive career path for most.

“It’s hard to find people that want these types of jobs. When you first get out of college you don’t want to run back and forth between Nantucket and Hyannis, you want to go out into the world and do fun jobs. That’s kind of the world we’re in right now,” he said.

“This is a huge concern of mine and Steamship management is working on this, but it’s tough all over (the country).”

Staffing-wise, the SSA is in a similar place as last summer, Driscoll said. Crew shortages have already affected several trips, but there’s only so much they can do about it other than what they are already trying.

“All of our crew can only work so many hours in a row, by law and by contract. We always make every effort to call anybody who could be available, but sometimes they’re not, and then we have to deal with the consequences of that and figure out the best way to maintain the most service possible for both of our island populations,” Driscoll said.

Anybody interested in working for the SSA can apply or learn more at steamshipauthority. com/jobs

Orcas and Nantucket Islands are each roughly the same size and the same distance off their respective coasts. We share the same concerns about the high cost of living, lack of affordable housing, tourist management, ferry problems and environmental degradation. We are living on opposite ends of the country but many of the issues and opportunities are the same. Recently theOrcasonian and the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror decided to share articles of mutual interest with our readers. This article from Nantucket should sound very familiar.