By Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee
Christmas package?
Last spring the Legislature couldn’t agree on a “transportation package” (gas tax). They’re considering trying again and including the state Department of Transportation’s reforms. Expect public meetings in October.
The ferryboats that served us
Last month we talked about the Nisqually, Kingston’s principal boat for WSF’s first 15 years. This column continues that narrative. Since Nisqually was in operation, Kingston’s ferries can be sorted into four waves of WSF-built boats supported by an eclectic mix of other vessels. We’ll review the WSF-built ferries here and cover the other boats next month.Evergreen State boats: Tillikum (1968-72)
The 80-car Nisqually was followed by the 100-car Evergreen State class boats, primarily Tillikum, which served Kingston straight through the 1970s and, occasionally, into the 1980s. These ferries were designed by W.C. Nickum and Sons, which became the Elliott Bay Design group, a line of Seattle naval architects that have designed all WSF’s boats.
Nisqually had been built for the smaller cars of the 1920s and 1930s. Using war-surplus destroyer-escort engines, the Evergreen State boats carried 100 1950s size (big) cars and had largest passenger cabin of the time. Car deck clearance, however, was only 13 feet, which soon became too low for the standard 16-foot-high highway truck.
Super class ferries: Hyak, Elwha, Yakima (1973-98)
The Super Class ferries were a big jump in capacity and capability. They carried full-size trucks, traveled at 20 knots, and held 160 cars and 2,500 passengers. As we didn’t have a “built in Washington” rule until the Jumbo II ferries, the Supers were competitively bid and built by National Steel in San Diego.
Hyak served as a Kingston’s mainstay through the 1990s. Elwha famously grounded in 1983 while the captain was showing a passenger what her Grindstone Harbor vacation home looked like from the water.
Issaquah class ferries: Sealth, Chelan (1982-98)
At 130 cars, Issaquah Class boats were smaller than the Supers so they supplemented rather than replaced them.
The Issaquahs had a soap-opera start with lawsuits, political scandals, and environmental violations. The reason was that they were built by Marine Power and Equipment, a Washington company with no prior ferry experience. They allegedly got the contract because of intervention by some senators who profited from the deal.
Marine Power went bankrupt and the boats were so flawed they had to be rebuilt. Their most notorious problem was an erratic propulsion control system that caused the boats to regularly ram the Kingston pier. In one case, the propulsion system decided to pull away from the pier, dropping a car into the water. Today, they’re a reliable Mukilteo mainstay.
Jumbo and Jumbo II ferries: Walla Walla, Puyallup, Spokane (1998-present)By the 1970s, demand at Kingston and Bainbridge had outstripped the Supers and Issaquahs’ capacities, so WSF built the 188-car Jumbos and 202-car Jumbos IIs. Until BC Ferries’ 370-car Coastal ferries, Jumbos were the world’s largest drive-on ferries.
The Jumbo II’s were outfitted with leading-edge “cycloconverters,” which convert fixed 60-cycle power to a variable frequency for the propulsion motors. This combines reliability with precise control and is commonly used on icebreakers.
Although the first Jumbo was launched in 1972, it wasn’t until 1998 that the Walla Walla showed up here, followed by the Puyallup in 1999. Barring the crew inadvertently frying Walla Walla’s motor last fall, and propeller vibrations that plagued the Jumbo IIs early on, these Todd-built boats have been a success.
“I do” on the deep blue?
It’s a myth that captains may marry couples. According to federal law: “The commanding officer shall not perform a marriage ceremony on board his ship or aircraft.”
