Our view: Dream boat Susitna ready to sail, so set a course for ... where?

Once again, we don't give a damn how they do it Outside.
The Mat-Su Borough owns a $78 million, twin-hulled, ice-breaking semi-fast ferry capable of carrying commuters across Knik Arm, or hitting the beach in an invasion, or providing search and rescue in Cook Inlet, or cruising as passengers dine in comfort between Kenai and Anchorage.
But the Susitna will remain at dockside in Ketchikan, where it was built, until the borough finds a mission for it.
You could say the ferry happened too fast. Docking facilities at both Point MacKenzie in the Mat-Su and in Anchorage are lacking. At Point MacKenzie, there's a plan for a walk-on dock next year. In Anchorage, just 2.5 miles across Knik Arm, there's no place for the ferry to go yet.
That's a sad state of affairs, considering that the original purpose of the ferry was to provide a fast, reliable link between Point MacKenzie and Anchorage. Backers saw it as either an alternative or precursor to the Knik Arm Bridge.
Instead, Mat-Su got an experimental boat unlike any other, with a West High grad as co-inventor and the United States Navy picking up most of the tab, courtesy of the late Sen. Ted Stevens. It dazzled its crew and co-inventor Lew Madden during sea trials out of Ketchikan.
As reporter Lisa Demer noted in Daily News stories on Sunday and Monday, lack of ferry facilities hasn't prevented all kinds of talk about what the ferry might do for Alaskans in the Cook Inlet region or elsewhere. But so far, it's just talk.
So Mat-Su's ferry stays berthed about 1,000 miles away, closer to Puget Sound than to Knik Arm.
This operation was not only design by committee, with the risks and troubles that entails, but included separate agendas. Mat-Su got a ferry because the Navy wanted a landing-craft prototype.
Naval architect Guido Perla called the Susitna the most demanding project he's had in 40 years of business. Costs rose. Compromises were made. The boat is in a class of its own.
She's a beauty, but as a ferry she's overkill. The borough didn't need a boat like this to ferry cars, trucks and people across a couple of miles of Knik Arm -- or for dinner cruises on Cook Inlet.
Boondoggle? Yes. But the challenge now is to make the best of it. Mat-Su is into the project for about $370,000 -- that's about one-half of 1 percent of the Susitna's price. That's a great deal if the borough can figure out how to use the ferry and cover operation and maintenance costs. It's hard to see how.
Continued federal help -- this bargain came from U.S. taxpayers -- isn't likely. State help may be a different story.
The borough -- or some other outfit, public or private -- should be able to find Alaska work for a boat this tough and versatile. Right now, it looks like a gift the recipient isn't prepared to accept.
BOTTOM LINE: Mat-Su gets a splendid boat -- to do exactly what?