PORT TOWNSEND — Celtic harpist David Michael might perform again on a state ferry, but it could be aboard a new Island Home-model ferry in two years.

Michael, who in August 2007 stopped playing on the now-mothballed MV Klickitat ferry when Washington State Ferries officials cracked down on security requirements, walked away from a meeting Wednesday with David Moseley, assistant secretary for the state ferries system, with refreshed hope of busking aboard the first of two new 60-car Island Home ferries.

State ferries is scheduling the launch of the first Island Home ferry in April 2010 on the Port Townsend-Keystone route.

Michael said that Wednesday’s warmer get-together was a far cry from the days last year when Michael made quiet appeals for state ferries’ permission, or a contract, to perform, only to be “stonewalled,” as he put it.

Now, he said, “They have a good attitude about working with us.”

Contacted at his Seattle office on Thursday, Moseley agreed that it was a good meeting with Michael, but declined to comment further.

Said Ken Long, a Port Townsend-area arts patron who accompanied Michael and his wife, Dari, to the meeting said, “I do have high hopes that the ferry system people are going to come up with a policy that will allow busking.

“I think the groundwork’s been laid for some progress.”