When it comes to mass transit, Puget Sound's new selling point is that open water requires no expensive workers to design, build, pave, stripe or repeatedly patch its surface.

"The route is free," said King County Councilman Dow Constantine at a "mosquito fleet" forum last week at Salty's on Alki.

"It just makes immense sense," said Seattle City Councilwoman Jan Drago.

Sponsored by the Cascadia Discovery Institute, the July 2 forum put King County elected officials together with city officials, representatives of boat builders, maritime labor unions, chambers of commerce and transit agencies from Tacoma to Bellingham.

They were joined by people from Argosy Cruises, operator of the Elliott Bay water taxi, to talk about setting up a regional system of passenger-only ferries on Puget Sound.

The mosquito fleet was a flotilla of thousands of steamships that sailed Puget Sound for hire from the 1850s to the 1930s. Attending the forum were representatives from communities that were once served by the mosquito fleet: Des Moines, Port Orchard, Tacoma, Poulsbo, Port Gamble and Kingston.

While the mosquito fleet was made up mostly of privately owned vessels, today the government provides passenger-only ferry service.

The Washington Legislature decided this year that it's willing to continue paying for large, car-carrying ferries but it wants out of the passenger-only ferry business.

Speakers at the mosquito fleet forum said it is now up to communities in the Puget Sound region of the state to form their own coalitions to provide and pay for passenger-only ferry service.

Constantine recently introduced legislation, approved by the County Council, to establish a King County ferry district. Its first priority is to keep passenger-only ferries operating between downtown Seattle and Vashon Island.

The plan is for the new ferry district to assume financial responsibility for the new ferry service next summer, and then take the helm two years from now.

The new ferry district is overseen by the County Council, which also can levy property taxes of up to 75 cents per $1,000 worth of valuation to subsidize passenger-only ferries.

A woman attending the meeting asked why tourism wasn't part of the forum discussion.

Constantine noted that, while tourists don't usually ride Metro buses, they do include a ferry ride among their vacation activities. That could be a significant source of revenue for passenger-only ferries.

Under the new ferry district, the Elliott Bay water taxi between West Seattle and downtown could become a year-round service, and there will be better ferryboats and permanent docks, Constantine said.

"There is not an unsubsidized passenger ferry service in the world," Gordon Baxter of Maritime Labor told forum attendees. Every passenger ferry system on earth relies on taxpayers to pick up the financial slack, he said.

King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson convinced the County Council to approve a study of the potential for more waterborne transit on Puget Sound. Private consultants working for the Puget Sound Regional Council are doing the study.

Des Moines could have passenger-only ferry routes to both downtown Seattle and Tacoma. A future light rail connection in Des Moines could get people to SeaTac Airport, said Patterson.

The state agreed to hand over proceeds from the sale of the two existing passenger-only ferries, the Chinook and Snohomish. That money will be turned over to the King County Ferry District and put toward purchase of new passenger-only ferries for the Vashon Island run.

Other passenger-only routes discussed at the forum included a run between West Seattle and Magnolia, another connecting Renton and downtown Seattle. Another ferry route could link downtown Seattle to Magnolia, Shilshole Marina and the north Sound area. There's also renewed discussion of a ferry run between Kirkland and the University of Washington.

It might be necessary to move passenger-only routes around to figure out which work the best, Constantine said.

Some people argued for passenger-only ferry service up and down Puget Sound, from Bellingham to Olympia.

Jon Rose of Pope Resources in Port Gamble cautioned planners to forget north-south ferry routes. Highways already run north and south. Focus instead on east-west routes, he said.

The passenger-only boats Washington State Ferries recently operated were criticized for damage their wakes caused to private property along the shorelines where they operated, especially in narrow passages. So designers of a new passenger-only ferry are determining how to minimize the ferries' wake while maintaining reasonable speeds.

Designers have been working on a hydrofoil catamaran that could carry 149 passengers at a cruising speed of about 35 knots. It would be partially lifted from the water on a submerged wing that could increase speed, said Matt Mullett of All American Marine Inc., a boatbuilding company in Bellingham. The company builds aluminum boats for whale watching, ocean research and passenger transport among the Hawaiian Islands.

Catamarans ride on two parallel hulls. With less water resistance, they use 44 percent less fuel than monohulls and create smaller wakes, Mullett said.

Design of a new Puget Sound passenger-only vessel is expected by the end of this year, said Phil Osborne of Kitsap Transit and Pacific International Engineering.

Meanwhile the search continues for a permanent dock on the West Seattle side of Elliott Bay for the water taxi. For years, its "temporary" dock has been at Seacrest Park.

At the forum, former Port Commissioner Jack Block argued in favor of using Port of Seattle property by Jack Block Park for the water taxi.

"We can tie boats up there," Block said. "We have space for 1,000 cars over there."

Gerry Kingen, owner of Salty's on Alki, also recommended the park as a permanent home for the water taxi.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at 9320300 or timstc@robinsonnews.com.