Hawaii Superferry will search for options to lease out the Alakai after a state Supreme Court ruling on Monday found that the law which allowed the catamaran to operate during an environmental review was unconstitutional, Superferry president and chief executive officer Thomas Fargo said this morning.
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Fargo, after mentioning that the military might want to lease the Alakai, addressed speculation by some activists who have opposed the project that Superferry was designed from the start as a military operation.

"That's absolutely not true," said Fargo, a former Navy admiral. "We certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble to paint Alakai in the manner that we did, to appoint her with 836 first-class seats, to spend the huge sums of money that we did to establish service here in Hawaii if that was our goal.

"The goal that's unmistakable was to provide regular and reliable commercial ferry service in these Islands."

Early Superferry executives — and main investor John F. Lehman, a former Navy secretary — had touted the ferry's military utility in discussions with the state, including the possibility that it could be used to transport the Army's Stryker brigade between Oahu and the Big Island. The second vessel, which had been planned for Superferry's expansion to the Big Island, includes a vehicle ramp that could make it more useful to the military.