Sitka's new dock is old Sitka Dock: private infrastructure for public good.

AuthorSwagel, Will
PositionSPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

Sitka's status as a major cruise ship port has been slipping for more than a decade. The number of cruise ship passengers in 2013 barely topped 100,000, compared to nearly 300,000 just a few years before. Juneau and Ketchikan are visited by about 1 million passengers each year.

One reason is location. Sitka is on the outer coast of the Panhandle facing the open ocean, while the other major Southeast ports are stretched along the Inside Passage. For a cruise ship, coming to Sitka can be a detour. Visitors have also been diverted by new attractions in other ports--most notably Icy Strait Point near Hoonah, which offers everything from bear watching to kayaking to zip-line riding in a controlled and branded atmosphere.

But cruise industry representatives have long said that Sitka suffered from another handicap: the lack of a deepwater dock where the giant ships could tie up and their passengers disembark down gangways.

Unlike those visiting Ketchikan, Skagway or Juneau, cruise ships visiting Sitka had to anchor hundreds of yards out and ferry their passengers to and from shore in small boats called "tenders" or "lighters." While some passengers enjoyed the romance of lightering to shore, many others complained of long lines to board the boats and a choppy ride that could take twenty minutes each way.

For more than a decade, cruise industry representatives urged the construction of a deepwater dock off Sitka's picturesque downtown waterfront, but Sitka voters rejected the idea despite promises of funding from private sources. Two major efforts to build a dock near downtown failed.

Taking the Plunge

This is where Chris McGraw comes in. McGraw, thirty-four, is one of three sons of Chuck McGraw, the founder of McGraw Custom Construction. The company has built major projects like schools and hospitals throughout Southeast Alaska. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation purchased the construction portion of the business in January 2012.

McGraw and his family are the owners of Halibut Point Marine, a boatyard in a five-acre piece of waterfront property about six miles from downtown Sitka, near a state historical site called Old Sitka. In 2008, Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska contacted Halibut Point Marine and asked if they could provide moorage to a paddlewheel-style three-hundred-foot long cruise ship, "The Empress of the North." The Empress liked the moorage and ended up staying for the entire summer.

"And that got us thinking about a larger dock," says...

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