The acquisition of this ship represents an 80% solution, which at this point in KP's existence is good enough. Here is why I see it as an overall positive:
-The LOA, beam and draft of Liberty Star fit at the KP waterfront. Remember, the waterfront is pretty constrained and the T-AGOS ship was about the biggest ship that could fit there. We were always going to get something about this size.
- The price is right. This is a surplus, government owned ship, so the cost to KP to acquire it should be minimal. In the present budget climate, there was no way that we were going to get new construction or anything that had to purchased on the open market.
- This ship is coming far sooner than anyone expected. I consider this a positive sign. Perhaps the campus visits by the Senators and SecTrans are paying off.
-She should be in decent shape. The NASA mission demanded a high state of readiness, yet a low optempo.
-She obviously can tow and has a substantial towing winch plus other towing features. It shouldn't take much to set up a towing course at KP and use this ship as the centerpiece of it. I know that it is not the "perfect" towing platform, but consider the audience. We are offering basic and apprentice training to midshipmen who will eventually sit for 3/O licenses. We are not required to train to the chief mate/master level nor should we try. Just so long as we don't produce anyone like that recent MMA grad on that Great Lakes tow boat TV show "I just graduated MMA and I don't know how to do anything" Yikes!
-The DP system is a nice feature. While it is obviously rudimentary, it could also be used as a jumping off point to develop a DP course at KP. This would move KP along in the same direction that a substantial part of the maritime industry is going.
-The fast rescue boat included with Liberty Star is also a great feature. Every deck graduate of KP should get a FRB endorsement on their license. Now that KP will have a FRB to train on, it should be easy to put this course together and to require it. Again, this is an easy modernization of the curriculum that reflects trends in the maritime industry and would give our graduates a leg up.
The whole training ship drama at KP has been a bit overblown. The timing of the move of the T-AGOS Kings Pointer to Texas without good explanation coupled with the resignation of the Superintendent and the closure of GMATS made it seem like the sky was falling. It wasn't. What sets KP apart and makes it special is the Sea Year. The training ship was only supposed to complement the Sea Year at most and had not been doing a good job of that. During my tenure at KP, I spent a total of six hours underway on the Kings Pointer that was at KP prior to the T-AGOS version and I turned out fine and have been sailing for 25 years. The training ship just hasn't been very critical at KP due to the experience gained during Sea Year.
Hopefully this new incarnation of the Kings Pointer will lead to some incremental modernization of the curriculum to help keep a KP education relevant and the ship will be used more and will prove to be more useful that its predecessor.