Damage puts 80-year-old ferry’s future in question

EVERETT – A crack in a key part of one of the state’s oldest ferries has engineers scrambling for a solution, but not promising a repair.

If their plan doesn’t work out, the future of the 80-year-old Illahee is uncertain.

The 20-inch crack in the cast-iron stern tube of the Illahee can’t be closed by welding, so ferry officials are working with a Seattle shipyard, trying to create a replacement from a large pipe, said Marta Coursey, communications director for Washington State Ferries.

It’s a 21st-century attempt to fabricate a part that was made in 1927.

Ferry officials hope the Illahee repair will be successful, but there are no guarantees, Coursey said.

The same holds true for the boat’s sister ferry, the Quinault, which also is undergoing dry dock repairs and inspections mandated by the Coast Guard.

“They are a work in progress,” she said of the two Steel Electric-class vessels.

The stern tube is a pipe that contains the ferry’s propeller shaft where it runs through the hull.

The crack in the Illahee was discovered July 29 when the vessel was making its first voyage after having earlier been placed in dry dock to undergo Coast Guard-mandated work. That included removal of concrete along the stern tube that previously prevented close inspection of the vessel’s riveted steel hull.

The stern tube crack was big enough to allow water to stream in at a rate of five gallons per minute. Ferry officials pulled the Illahee from service the same day.

Engineers initially believed the crack may have been caused by stress during dry dock. A close inspection found more corrosion of the stern tube than anticipated, Coursey said. The crack’s cause remains under investigation.

Work on the Illahee is expected to take weeks. With the Quinault also in dry dock, that means the state is down to just two operating Steel Electric boats.

The Klickitat and the Nisqually are being used on the route between Keystone on Whidbey Island and Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. The Steel Electric-class ferries are the only boats in the state’s 28-vessel fleet capable of using those terminals.

The Coast Guard earlier ordered the Nisqually to undergo mandatory inspection and repairs, but this week it approved using the boat on the Keystone-Port Townsend run until Sept. 9, after the end of the summer tourist season.