NANTUCKET --- Steamship Authority general manager Robert Davis continues to please the boat line board of governors, who gave him high grades in his second annual performance review during Tuesday’s SSA meeting at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” said Barnstable governor Robert Jones, who chairs the board and gave Mr. Jones an overall grade of 92.

Freight ferry Sankaty plies Vineyard route. — Mark Alan Lovewell

Nantucket governor Robert Ranney rated Mr. Davis 96 per cent.

“As good as he is, there’s always room for improvement,” Mr. Ranney said.

The lowest ratings Mr. Davis received from board members who attended Tuesday’s meeting were 85 per cent from Falmouth governor Kathryn Wilson and 90 per cent from Vineyard governor Marc Hanover. Moira Tierney of New Bedford, who was absent, has not submitted an evaluation, according to SSA director of communications Sean Driscoll.

The port council, a group of appointed representatives from each of the port towns the boat line serves, had already provided a 90 per cent overall rating for Mr. Davis’s performance for the year that began in July 2018.

After an executive session following the public meeting Tuesday, the SSA board voted unanimously to approve a three per cent raise for Mr. Davis.

Mr. Davis had declined to take a pay increase at the beginning of his second year with the boat line, continuing at his starting salary of $175,000, Mr. Driscoll said. This year’s raise is retroactive to the beginning of his contract year on July 1.

In other business Tuesday, the boat line moved closer to raising auto and some parking rates in 2020 as board members reviewed the draft budget for next year.

Treasurer/comptroller Mark Rozum told the board the SSA is about $5 million short of the $7 million it needs to break even on a $111 million annual operating budget for the coming year.

Because the Martha’s Vineyard route costs the boat line more than Nantucket service, more than $4 million of the shortfall is planned to come from increases in Vineyard fares, while the rest will fall on Nantucket travelers.

The proposed Vineyard increases range from $5 on excursion fares designed to provide affordable passage for Islanders — to $19 more each way for standard auto fares on summer weekends.

Motorcycle fares also will increase, Mr. Rozum said, because today’s motorcycles take up about as much freight deck space as cars do.

Board members will vote on the proposed fare schedule at their monthly meeting on the Vineyard on Oct. 15.

Mr. Davis said at that meeting he would report to the board of governors on the Sept. 19 public hearing in Falmouth, at which residents challenged the boat line’s plan to resume a 5:30 a.m. freight boat from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven next summer.

The board voted this week to approve the proposed 2020 schedule for the Nantucket route, but are holding off on the Vineyard decision until October.

General manager Robert Davis will get a three per cent raise on his $175,000 annual salary. — Louisa Hufstader

The meeting included the first of what are contracted to be quarterly visits from the SSA’s consulting team of John Sainsbury, of HMS Consulting, and ocean engineer Matthew Lankowski of Glosten.

The two led the board through a slide show noting the boat line’s progress on the strategic initiatives laid out by HMS/Glosten in last year’s comprehensive review of boat line operations.

Several key managers, in both new and existing positions, have been hired in the wake of the review. Two new positions filled earlier this year are those of director of marine operations Mark Amundsen and health, safety, quality and environment manager Angela Sampson.

“She’s doing a great job hitting the ground running on this HSQE implementation,” Mr. Lankowski said of Ms. Sampson’s work.

The boat line is also “right-sizing” its engineering department with additional hires, Mr. Lankowski said, including a project engineer whose job will include working up requests for proposals from shipyards to work on SSA ferries.

Having a dedicated engineer to prepare the RFPs well in advance of the need for work should help the boat line to get more bids from shipyards, Mr. Davis said.

With six months lead time on the RFP for drydocking the Island Home this winter, just one shipyard, Thames of New London, placed a bid to do the work.

Shipyards need more advance notice to place competitive bids, Mr. Davis told the board.

“They want to fill up their docks . . . so they’ll commit as soon as possible,” he said.