A full-size, air-inflated replica of the MV Kalakala could be making promotional voyages to the Port Angeles or Port Townsend waterfronts — if local officials show enough interest, the historical ferry’s new owner said Sunday.
“It will take over three to five years to refurbish the Kalakala, but we will entertain your community with an air-structure that is designed identical to the original vessel constructed onto a barge,” said Steve Rodrigues, who through his company, Lost Horizons, has purchased the Kalakala at auction.
The rusted art-deco ferry, which once plied the Port Angeles-Victoria run and, before then, was a Depression-era symbol of the modern Seattle as it sailed across Puget Sound, is now moored at the south end of Seattle’s Lake Union.
Kalakala, the original, must be moved to a new moorage location by Sunday, and is in need of an estimated $7 million in renovation, Rodrigues said.
“The plan is for the identical Kalakala to visit past ports in the Puget Sound region,” Rodrigues said.
The inflated replica, placed on a barge, would be used to promote fund-raising for the original ferry’s rehabilitation, he said.
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The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News.