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Post by chinook2 on Aug 16, 2015 0:08:34 GMT -8
I'd say Swartz Bay. Burnaby and New West were the Langdale boats back then. New West and Tsawassen were the Langdale boats. Burnaby and Nanaimo were Route 2. This is Berth 3 Swartz Bay.
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 10, 2015 12:36:03 GMT -8
IIRC, they were looking at the Suzy to supplement their fleet after the collapse of the Hood Canal Bridge in winter 78/79. The eventual deal-killer was lack of sewage tanks.
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Post by chinook2 on Mar 12, 2015 9:33:24 GMT -8
Officially the seven were the Victoria class, as the lengthenings were done, unofficially but almost universally called the stretch ferries through the 70s. Term stretch class was used in the 80s, and one planning doc I saw c.1990 called them the N class. The B Class designation dates from around 1991, when the New West was lifted
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Post by chinook2 on Aug 2, 2014 14:40:02 GMT -8
re platform decks, 1967-69 for the Victorias and the Tsawwassen, 1972 for the sidney. I have seen a list of modification dates from a BCF document, possibly the ships and terminals booklet the VI regional library has.
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Post by chinook2 on Aug 2, 2014 13:21:36 GMT -8
Don't know about pre 1969, but the Sidey's early 1970s summer included scheduled stops at normally one gulf island on either the north or southbound leg of a round trip.
Now, 1976: full time four boat service was maintained on route 2 until after fares were nearly doubled by the Bill Bennett Socred government. Ridership went way down, and service on route 2 was cut back. But there were still four ships on the route, except for refit times. I was a regular rider through those tears, and the two stretch ships on the route were normally Burnaby and Nanaimo.
It was Cowichan (dep Bay 1) Burnaby(Dep Bay 2( Coquitlam (hs bay 1) Nanaimo (hs bay 2) ---route 3 was New Westminster (langdale 1) and Tsawwassem (langdale @) Sidney was route 9,
Summer was full time four boat service, rest of the year base service the 2 Cs, with the Victoria class boats (THEY WERE NOT B CLASS the b class did not yet exist) sailing fridays and sundays. May have been 3 boats when Burnaby and Nanaimo were in refit. When the Cs were in refit a modified three boat baseline schedule was operated using the other C plus Burnaby and Nanaimo. There may have been other short term deployments on the routes, but that is basically how it ran.
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 10, 2014 11:16:07 GMT -8
The glory days of BCF dining. My Grandparents having lunch in the original restaurant of (i am guessing by the drapes) either the Saanich or the Esquimalt, c.1963.-65
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 9, 2014 22:40:50 GMT -8
AFAIR the surrey operated as third ship from horseshoe bay in summer 1975. Also, this is a historic thread, so remember that there were no B Class vessels in the fleet until the 1980s. Burnaby Nanaimo and New Westminster were officially Victoria Class, popularily known along with Victoria Vancouver Esquimalt and Saanich as Stretch Ferries.
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 9, 2014 22:20:28 GMT -8
I am fairly sure that in the summer of 1962 the Chinook II & Kahloke actually worked route 1 together with the new 'City' class. The veteran ex-Blackball ships offered the first even hour sailings on route 1, meaning that in 1962 there were up to 16 sailings daily. By summer 1963 the first Queens (the Esquimalt & Saanich) came on line on route 1 which sent the Chinook II & Kahloke north to Langdale. Hmmh. I've never seen pictures of the Kahloke or Chinook II at Tsawwassen or Swartz Bay during this time, and never read anything which indicated that they didn't transition from the Nanaimo route to Langdale. We need a 1962 schedule. E-Fleet? Microfilm of news articles of the time confirm that Kahloke and Chinook II (nice name:) worked route 1 in 1962/63. News articles tend to focus on the black ball ships not keeping schedule .next time I get to library will try and remember to get copies.
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 9, 2014 22:16:05 GMT -8
Both Burnaby and Nanaimo remained on route 2 until the Surrey(2) and Oak Bay were built. In 1976 and 77 four boats were operated full time on route 2 until a major fare increase (the first since 1960) cut ridership. At this point in 1977 two boat operation in off season with extra service friday and sunday became the norm. late 1976 saw the sidney and tsawwassen working together on route 3; beginning in 1977 the New West was number one vessel on the route with Tsawwassen supplementing
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 5, 2014 12:53:35 GMT -8
Quick list of open deck ferries built to cross Georgia Strait:
1/. Comox Queen/ Tenaka. No longer doing its original route 2/. Queen of the Islands 3/. Carrier Princess 4/.Queen of Alberni. Now featuring covered parking AND white spot burgers!!
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Post by chinook2 on Jul 3, 2014 10:23:58 GMT -8
Makes sense. I had that book years ago...might still have it stashed away somewhere. In normal years the Sidney relieved all seven of the Victoria class plus the Tsawwassen, which took about eight months, had her own refit, then did her summer supplemental duties on route 1. In years when the stretching program demanded it, the Sechelt provided a second relief boat. Nice slide.
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Post by chinook2 on Jan 7, 2014 23:49:20 GMT -8
Agreed. Also note the absence of the cafeteria at the Aft of the Sidney Class vessel in the shot. Definitely 1960-61. Yep, definately S.B. You can tell by the ship's early livery and the covered, curved foot passenger walkway. Cool pic. This postcard shot confirms it. Swartz Bay.
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Post by chinook2 on Dec 28, 2012 13:43:53 GMT -8
re Seaspan, the terminal predates the launch of Carrier Princess. MV Trailer Princess operated that service prior to 1973, but don't know when CPR began service at that terminal.
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Post by chinook2 on May 31, 2012 9:25:47 GMT -8
it wouldn't have fit the Bs either--I was told by terminal staff the Burnaby had the standard stern ramp gate position, but on the upper passenger deck, to fit better with the overhead on Berth 1 and 2. Can anyone confirm this??
Berth 3 continued to be the main operational berth till berth one and two were double decked to accommodate the newly modified C Class.
And Queen of Sidney did use berth 4 (originally 3) as an operational berth when she was the summer supplemental boat--at least at beginning and end of her day.
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Post by chinook2 on May 2, 2012 10:25:13 GMT -8
photo from the BCF website, showing Swartz Bay in 1965, with the walkway system Attachments:
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Post by chinook2 on Apr 29, 2012 19:38:02 GMT -8
The upper "sun" deck is built out to the width of the ship, it is a V. Hard call though, unusual angle to view the ship from.
The old, pre overhead walkway at Tsawwassen was a pretty basic affair, not fully enclosed, so pretty chilly on a stormy winter night.
The original Swartz Bay overhead would have been built between 1963 and 1965, when the current berths 4 and 5 replaced the original Gulf Islands terminal. They were there from my earliest memory(c.1966) maybe some other old timers can help with the history here.
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Post by chinook2 on Apr 24, 2012 20:03:47 GMT -8
A couple things about Departure Bay, that this photo shows 1) The passenger walkway meets the ship just forward of the cafeteria. It's further from the stern than the bow gangway is from the bow, and that's all because of the space that the 7-Sister cafeterias take up. Swartz Bay was first by many years to have separate passenger walkways (early 1960s). Cafeterias didn't dictate position of the ramps, they didn't exist yet, the position appears to be dictated by the location of the aft doors to the outer deck.
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Post by chinook2 on Apr 11, 2012 22:14:11 GMT -8
:)a fine collection of images of this coastal revelation of 2010! mrdot. They are def more photogenic than the spooks....
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Post by chinook2 on Mar 26, 2012 15:27:14 GMT -8
Who degined QPR and the PR class boats?
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Post by chinook2 on Mar 13, 2012 21:36:13 GMT -8
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Post by chinook2 on Mar 6, 2012 12:20:01 GMT -8
found this today, wasn't sure what thread to put it in, but here it is, an old story, told with warmth and spinach.
***Moderator Edit: moved this post into the "Why The Sky is Blue" Thread***
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Post by chinook2 on Mar 5, 2012 10:26:46 GMT -8
Photo from a 1960s BCF tourism brochure, VICL Silver Eagle bus disembarking at TSA Berth 2.
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Post by chinook2 on Feb 25, 2012 11:37:04 GMT -8
I'm probably wrong on this, but I was always under the impression that the Tsawwassen never had the teak handrails, but only the Sidney did. Or did the Tsawwassen just lose hers earlier in life? They both had the wood rails. Tsawwassen was redone c.1979-80.
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Post by chinook2 on Feb 12, 2012 6:10:23 GMT -8
No, no, no, you have it all wrong, that's the Queen of Kelsey Bay on the right, Queen of Richmond in the middle, and I'm not sure I can identify the vessel on the left. Valdes Queen, on loan from MoT. Later renamed Klamydia.
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Post by chinook2 on Jan 15, 2012 13:32:32 GMT -8
What would make sense to me in the summer would be to convert the late afternoon/evening sailings of the New West (or the CR if it stays at TSA long term) into MDS, so the ship could be used on rte. 30 if demand warranted it.
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