The Steamship Authority board of governors voted Friday to hire Faststream Recruitment to conduct an executive search for the next general manager.

Current general manager Robert Davis is set to step into an advisory position once the new general manager is in place.

The Steamship Authority board also discussed requests to place a non-voting community representative on the general manager search committee, which is made up of board and port council members.

“I’ve received a number of requests to have a non-voting member from the community be part of the search process [and] I’m not sure exactly why people want that, other than they feel it might make it more transparent or more inclusive. Or perhaps there’s a sense that the board members are somehow ‘inside’ and perhaps not as open,” said James Malkin, the Vineyard’s representative to the board, adding that he has received three resumes from people interested in joining the committee.

Board member Robert Jones of Barnstable called the request “completely unprecedented [and] unorthodox.”

“We’ve never done anything like this, and I don’t want to start a precedent today that will limit us for years to come,” Mr. Jones said.

The board voted unanimously to table the item.

Also at the meeting, chief operating officer Mark Amundsen updated the board on the progress of the three new freight vessels. He said that the new M/V Barnstable is up to speed on the Nantucket route, after initially running slower than expected.

“We’re right on the money of where we want to be and, quite frankly, very happy with the speed performance,” he said.

The Barnstable’s first sister ship, M/V Aquinnah, is nearly ready for sea trials and Coast Guard inspections before joining the fleet later this spring.

The last of the three identical vessels, M/V Monomoy, is still being equipped at Alabama Shipyard, where Mr. Amundsen said the work is moving quickly.

“This vessel being the third, the efficiencies of the first two have been picked up and she’s going very well,” he said.

The board of governors was also told that the new transfer bridges for the Vineyard Haven terminal will not be ready until after the summer travel season. The replacement work was previously scheduled for this past winter, until it was put on hold until the Tisbury Conservation Commission reviewed the project.

Mr. Davis reported that difficulties with the vendor have now pushed the Vineyard Haven work to this fall, while the Nantucket work still has not begun.

“We previously reported that we’d be doing the transfer bridge replacements on Nantucket, followed by the Vineyard. That’s still the plan, however, the Vineyard will definitely at this point be put off until the fall,” Mr. Davis said.