Old ferries put state, shipbuilder at odds

EVERETT – When the ferry Klickitat first entered the water, Calvin Coolidge was president and the first movie with sound came to theaters. Eighty years later, the Klickitat and other steel electric class ferries are still carrying passengers in Puget Sound.

Last year, nearly 767,000 people rode the four old ferries between Keystone Harbor on Whidbey Island and Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. They keep going despite a more frequent need for repairs and the efforts of Tacoma shipbuilder Joe Martinac, who has spent a decade and $2.5 million to encourage the state to replace the vessels built in 1927.

A new 6-inch crack in the Klickitat’s riveted steel-plate hull is one of six breaches or holes found in the last 10 years, according to a review of maintenance records by Washington State Ferries, the Herald of Everett reported.

A video J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. sent to lawmakers outlines a series of emergency repairs – from cracks and holes to damaged rudders and decks. The ferries have been sent back to the dock for repairs 11 times since 1997.

Early last week, Coast Guard inspectors ordered the Klickitat out of the water when they examined a crack ferry engineers had discovered. Ferry engineers had welded a patch over the crack, but the Coast Guard decided the problem warranted more attention.

For 2 1/2 days, ferry service from Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula was canceled.

Martinac says the four steel ferries are falling apart and it’s past time to replace them.

“There is just a fundamental safety issue and, in concert with that, a virtual unlimited liability,” he said.

Susan Harris-Huether, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, said the Klickitat and its sister ferries need more frequent repairs than newer vessels, but they are safe.

“It’s like a car,” she said. “As the vessels get older, you have more repairs to do, and the parts for these repairs get harder and harder to find and often have to be manufactured ourselves – jury-rigged if you will.”

State lawmakers in 2001 passed a bill directing the state Department of Transportation to build replacement ferries. But Martinac says legislators and other government officials have tried ever since then to delay production of the new ferries and keep shipbuilding work from his company.

Instead of building new ferries, Martinac’s company has been spending time with lawyers and in court suing the state and federal government. Among his legal complaints is that Washington officials have engaged in what amounts to civil racketeering by undermining Martinac’s hopes of building replacement ferries.

Much of the racketeering complaint focuses on what Martinac describes as the inadequacy of the Klickitat and its sister ships. He says none of the steel electric ferries meets safety requirements.

State officials dismiss Martinac’s claims.

“I can say confidently the state will be doing everything it can through its attorneys to prove that that lawsuit is ridiculous – and ridiculous is an accurate term,” said Steve Reinmuth, director of government relations for the state Department of Transportation. “The lawsuit has no merit. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money to have to defend it, but we will.”

Reinmuth said lawsuits are the only reason the Klickitat and the other aging ferries haven’t been replaced already.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said there is no question that the Klickitat and other ferries need to go, but she said money and the legal issues are preventing that from happening.