November 2, 2014
Dear Valued Customer:
RE: Young Brothers Investigating Brief Grounding in Nāwiliwili Harbor
Young Brothers, Limited experienced an incident on Friday, Oct. 31, at approximately 8:30 p.m. at
Nāwiliwili Harbor in which its tugboat, the Moana Holo, and its barge, the Maka’ala, briefly ran aground.
The tug and barge had begun a return sailing with cargo to Honolulu Harbor when the incident occurred.
The Young Brothers’ crew immediately reported the incident to the U.S. Coast Guard.
No employees were injured, no cargo on the barge (Maka’ala) was lost or damaged, and no fuel or oil
leaked from either of the vessels. The tug and barge immediately returned to Nāwiliwili pier. Cargo on
the barge was offloaded. It has been re-loaded onto an alternate barge, the Ho’omakahou.
“We take very seriously the safety of employees, customers and customer cargo as well as the
environment,” said Glenn Hong, president of Young Brothers. “We are investigating this incident with
urgency and great care to prevent this from happening again.”
In addition to its own investigation, Young Brothers is continuing to cooperate with the Coast Guard in
the investigation of the cause of the grounding and the ongoing monitoring of the conditions of both
vessels. Both vessels are currently docked pier-side at Nāwiliwili Harbor and being prepared to be
towed back to Oahu where they are scheduled to be in drydock for repairs later this week.
Impact to Port
Current reports indicate that there is no damage to any portion of the commercial harbor, although the
tug and barge did make contact with the breakwater. The harbor is being surveyed for marine debris
from the barge. Because marine debris may pose a hazard to vessel traffic, the Coast Guard Captain of
the Port closed the Port of Nāwiliwili earlier today. Young Brothers is working with the Coast Guard and
other agencies to confirm there are no hazards to vessel traffic so that the port may be reopened.
Impacts to Weekly Schedule
As of 5 p.m. today, Nāwiliwili Harbor remained closed. Depending on the time that Nāwiliwili Harbor is
reopened, cargo from Nāwiliwili very likely will not be available in Honolulu as scheduled for pick up by
customers on Monday morning, Nov. 3. Young Brothers may also have to reschedule its Monday sailing
from Honolulu to Nāwiliwili, pending the status of the reopening of the harbor. Young Brothers will
provide further updates on Nāwiliwili operations.
Through its Honolulu hub, Young Brothers provides 12 weekly port calls from Honolulu to the state’s
neighbor island ports, including Hilo, Kawaihae, Kahului, Kaumalapau, Kaunakakai and Nāwiliwili. With
damage and necessary repairs being made to the barge Maka’ala, Young Brothers will have to make
changes to the barges assigned to certain ports this week, with Nāwiliwili, Kawaihae and Kahului being
served this week by barges smaller than normally employed in these sailings. As a result, although
Young Brothers will make every effort to ship cargo in a timely fashion, Young Brothers will likely have to
limit the volume of dry pallets, mixed cargo, automobiles and roll-on/roll-off cargo to these three ports
this week.
Sincerely,
/s/ Matthew J. Humphrey
Matthew J. Humphrey
Vice President and General Manager