Four oldest ferries will keep running

PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. – Four Steel Electric-class vessels, the oldest used as ferries on salt water in the United States, will remain in service on the Port Townsend-Keystone run, state officials have decided.

After six years and studies costing $5.5 million, a switch to larger boats had to be ruled out for the foreseeable future largely because of the difficulty and expense of adapting the two small terminals for larger vessels, said W. Michael Anderson, executive director of Washington State Ferries.

Parts of the studies will be useful in future planning, he said.

“The moneys that have been spent are not wasted,” Anderson said. “It’s not money that we’re throwing away.”

The Illahee, Klickitat, Nisqually and Quinault, built in 1927 with a capacity of about 60 cars and more than 600 passengers, are the only vessels in the state ferry fleet small enough for the terminals at Port Townsend on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula and Keystone on the west side of Whidbey Island.

They have had problems with leaks and eventually must be replaced, probably with boats that can carry up to 100 cars, but the state now has neither the funds nor a time frame for construction, and public opinion also has to be considered, Anderson said Tuesday at a ferry committee meeting.

The four boats have “80-year-old hulls, and nothing lasts forever,” Anderson said. “Eventually, we’re going to have to replace them – and if we’re going to replace them, let’s look at what our communities want.”

For motorists, the shortest alternative to the half-hour crossing is a combination of driving and two ferry runs, Kingston-Edmonds and Clinton-Mukilteo.

If the Coast Guard finds one of the vessels to be unsafe, the other three will be shuffled to maintain service on the route, Anderson said.

If all four are found to be unsafe, ferry officials will consider several emergency options, including “scanning the world” for replacements or switching to passenger-only service, he said.

Ferry officials previously were considering the use of 144-car ferries between Keystone and Port Townsend, but residents on both sides of the run didn’t want boats that big.

“This is exactly what we were hoping for,” Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard said.

Construction of the 144-car ferries, similar to the Issaquah-class boats with a capacity of about 1,500 passengers and usable on other runs, has been stalled by wrangling among area shipyards.

Legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Chris Gregoire allows Todd Pacific Shipyards of Seattle, J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. of Tacoma and Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Whidbey Island to work together in getting the first boat completed by 2009.

Lawmakers approved construction of the four ferries in 2001 and a contract was awarded to Todd in 2005, but Martinac claimed it had been knocked out of the competition illegally and a judge agreed. More litigation has followed.