Following a tense few months for the Steamship Authority, things were palpably more relaxed at the boat line September board meeting: fuel prices were retreating and with them the prospect of fare increases or service cuts. And there was the happy prospect of a half million dollar windfall.

SSA management told the board the boat line could recoup half the design costs of its newest vessel, the Island Home, because Washington state ferries wants to build at least two new vessels and is looking to use the same design as the Island Home.

Thus they were seeking board approval from SSA general manager Wayne Lamson to enter into a contract with the Elliott Bay Design Group, the naval architecture and marine engineering firm responsible for the Island Home, to license the designs to Washington state.

The license fee of two per cent of the total construction contract amount of $80 to $85 million — maybe even $90 million — would be split between Elliott Bay and the SSA.

The design firm would get 70 per cent and the boat line 30 per cent — which, Mr. Lamson said, could see the SSA gain $500,000 of the $1 million-odd design cost of the Island Home.

It all depends on the construction contract proceeding, of course, but boat line governors quickly gave Mr. Lamson the go-ahead to negotiate the prospect of what is effectively free money.

Governors also approved a measure which could lead to another windfall — although this time not for the boat line itself, but for the Islands which provide its customers.

Currently, to be eligible for an excursion fare when taking their cars off-Island, a Vineyard or Nantucket resident must provide the SSA with an affidavit attesting that they live here. They also must provide a copy of their driver’s license, showing a residential address here.

This now will change. Instead of signing the affidavit, a customer must instead provide proof he or she is on the official street list of a town on one of the Islands.

This relatively simple change was driven by Nantucket town clerk Catherine Flanagan Stover, who reckons it could yield millions of dollars in extra state and federal funds for Island towns.

Ms. Stover has campaigned for many years for the change, since she first learned from a census official in the year 2000 that for each extra person recorded on a town’s street list, about $1,100 per year flowed to that town.

She figured that if people — particularly the large but unrecorded foreign national populations — on the Islands could be persuaded it was in their interest to get on the street list and thus to be included in the census, their combined population might even be enough to win a state representative seat for the Islands.

About a month ago, she, along with the three down-Island town clerks on the Vineyard met with SSA management to push the proposal. Subsequently the other three towns on the Island also joined in support.

SSA governors decided to seek public comment on the plan before voting on it. SSA general counsel Steven M. Sayers said last week no comments had been received.

Mr. Sayers assured governors the new method would impose no extra costs on passengers.

Ms. Stover was on hand at last Tuesday’s meeting in Nantucket to see her plan finally accepted, although some governors appeared perplexed by some of the details, including Nantucket governor Flint Ranney. “ . . . someone can be a legal resident of Nantucket, but an illegal alien,” he said.

Ms. Stover said the towns still have to provide services to people, whether they are legal or not.

It is open to question, however, how many undocumented residents would apply under the new system, for they still could not legally meet the other requirement for excursion fares — a valid Massachusetts driver’s licence.

But Mr. Sayers said not all the foreign population is undocumented. Many are here legally, and would have no reason not to register.

He also noted in a staff summary presented to the meeting that there may be a “somewhat large” number of excursion customers whose names do not appear on any street list.

In other happy business, management also presented a preliminary draft of the SSA operating budget for next year with no planned fare hikes.

This was made possible by recent falls in fuel prices from their peak a couple of months ago near $140 a barrel to around $100.

Mr. Lamson said oil prices are projected to stay around $100 to $110 per barrel for the coming year, and as long as they do, fare increases are off the agenda.

But he warned that a 20 per cent rise in fuel costs could cause a rethink.

“The flags would be up if oil went to $125 or $130,” he said.

There was also some discussion of ways to better predict fuel costs, lock in prices and possibly hedge against market fluctuations.

No conclusions were reached and no vote taken.

In other business, governors agreed to changes in the transferable head start reservation policy.

Head start reservations are mostly made by people who rent out their homes during summer, and do not know who their renters will be when they make the reservations in January.

There had been complaints that the May 15 deadline for transferring reservations was presenting problems. Henceforth, the rule will be that changes must be made before May 15, or 30 days in advance of the departure date of the first segment of the booking.

Vineyard governor Marc Hanover said the change will be a huge benefit to people renting their homes over summer.

Last week’s meeting was the first for one governor. The new member is John A. Tierney of New Bedford. He replaces David Oliveira, who announced he was stepping down in August.