More people are riding TheBoat, and city officials hope a schedule change will boost numbers even more, securing the demonstration project's future.

TheBoat will continue to offer three morning trips each day from Kalaeloa to Aloha Tower and three afternoon return trips, but will offer earlier trips each way and will space out the voyages more.

"We moved the schedule around based on comments from current riders and those interviewed who said why they didn't ride TheBoat," said Wayne Yoshioka, city director of transportation services. "From the feedback we received, they thought the first two sailings were too close together, so we shifted the second boat to 6:30.

"In the afternoon, we heard buses were having trouble from UH and Waikiki making the 4:20 sailing because of traffic. We also had a group of people who get off at 3 who said it was too late, so we had to adjust."

All this, Yoshioka said, is to keep TheBoat's momentum building. Since ridership hit an all-time low in December with just 1,936 passengers, ridership numbers increased to 4,225 in January and 5,609 in February. March numbers are also up, Yoshioka said.

The increased traffic — more than 30,000 passengers since TheBoat's first sail in September, an average of 230 passengers per day — is important for the program's future. The city received $5 million in federal grants to support the ferry, which is linked to five bus routes and costs about $6 million a year to run. Federal funding runs out in September, and the city has proposed $4 million in local funds to keep it going through its fiscal year of October 2009.

"Sometime, probably in August, we'll have to look as to whether to continue it after that," Yoshioka said. "All public transit is subsidized. No public transportation breaks even. That's not the point. The key is to have enough ridership to show that people on board are benefitting from the service."

Yoshioka is encouraged by the direction the boat is heading. It's been 10 weeks since the Rachel Marie, one of two 72-foot aluminum catamarans used in the service, has had any engine troubles. Yesterday, a blessing was held for both ferries.

And during the whale season, he said, some residents and tourists use TheBoat as an inexpensive sightseeing cruise.

"When (Mayor Mufi Hannemann) had his Cabinet take TheBoat from Aloha Tower for the meeting in Kapolei, they got to see whales breaching," Yoshioka said. "We've heard from crews that on one of our afternoon sailings, about one-quarter of the riders are just people whalewatching or sightseeing. You can tell who they are because they don't get off at the dock. They just stay on it for the return trip.