Refit Season

[queenofcowichan]

Re: mv Mill Bay

After checking my e-mail at the Public Library in Nanaimo yesturday I decided to walk along the Sea walk down to get pictures of the mv Mill Bay at the Shipyard. She is completley draped with tarps from the car deck down.

Since this is not my own computer the only way I can upload pictures is to go to Walmart and get the pictures transfered over to a CD then upload them from the CD. I hope to upload them near the end of next week.

[Deleted]

I heard on the radio this afternoon that the Mill Bay will be out of service for 3-4 more weeks. They need the time to finish the repairs.

[hwy19man]

Chalk up another refit ferry coming back late! The Queen of Oak Bay won't be back until May 23. It means that there will be no 3rd vessel on route 2 for the Victoria Day weekend.

Believe it or not, route 30 will have one extra round trip on May 17 leaving TSA at 1600h and Duke Point at 1845h. On May 18, the extra sailings will be departing TSA at 2045h and DP at 2320h. The Queen of Vancouver will be doing these extra sailings.

[hergfest]

Easier to do extra sailings on Route 30 than Route 2 because the Vancouver ends up at Twa anyways. I guess they hope people will take Route 30 instead.

[queenofcowichan]

The only problem with the Vancouver doing route 30 extra trips is that the Langdale Run is left out for extra sailings.

[Hardy]

This is furtherance to my post in another thread -- I'm curious for insight as to why it seems (or is it REAL?) that all recent refits have run long (in some cases WAY long) of what BCFS has initially anticipated?!

This has a lot of ramifications, not the least of which is leaving us with mis-matched ships, messed up schedules, cancelled sailings, lack of spare vessels for overflow loads etc.

Has BCFS been TOO optimistic in their scheduling of refits?

Have there been problems with some of the required upgrades that the refit vessels are scheduled to have?

Are the shipyards short-staffed or under-equipped?

Did the shipyards bid too low and therefore are not prepared to run overtime shifts to cover minor delays, which then end up compounding over the length of the project?

Or are our ferries really in that bad of a shape that once you "lift the hood" that you find all sorts of other things that are wrong and need to be fixed before the vessel returns to service?

I really would like to hear some thoughts and comments on this, preferrably some insight from someone that knows the real story.

All the delays with the refits and the corresponding lack of capacity is really starting to have ill effects on the economy, BCFS's appearance as a competant company, tourism and the travelling public in general. I won't even touch on botched refits or aborted shorter refits or the whole NorAd debacle .... let's just stick to the "main" ones that we are all familiar with and have already been discussed at some length.

Thanks for your input and I wish to see the different sides of this topic .....

[hergfest]

BCF just posted a service notice that the Burnaby might not be back on time either.

[Hardy]

hergfest said:

BCF just posted a service notice that the Burnaby might not be back on time either.

!!! !!! !!! !!!

[Northern Exploration]

Would certainly be interesting to know where the fault lies. But I suspect that a number of hands are in that proverbial cookie jar. I am sure that once things are underway stuff crops up. However wouldn't you think you would add some fudge time in the refit so that you returned a ship to service early rather than having them all late?

So far though it doesn't appear that BC Ferries is having any impact on the efficiency of the building of the Super C's. So maybe that is a clue or maybe not.

[Hardy]

pnwtraveler said:

Would certainly be interesting to know where the fault lies. But I suspect that a number of hands are in that proverbial cookie jar. I am sure that once things are underway stuff crops up. However wouldn't you think you would add some fudge time in the refit so that you returned a ship to service early rather than having them all late?

This is what I was trying to solicit with my post. Coming out of trucking, I know that once you get into a repair project and "get the hood up" that you find all sorts of stuff. I would have thought, incorrectly it seems, that before a ship goes into REFIT, that the engineers go thru it and have some kind of a game plan as to what they hope to accomplish during that refit. You would think that this would be the case so that they could SCHEDULE the appropriate amount of time, ORDER the parts required, ENGAGE any subtrades that they would need etc .....

HOWEVER, , this does not sem to be the case at all.

I also agree that some "discretionary" time should be built into each refit session, so that a quick "shake-down cruise" can spot problems and they be fixed too. Parts take time to order and ship in, or fabricate or whatever. I understand all this. If any of my repairs to my trucks that I drive ever went as awry as BCFS refits, the companies I work for would never use those repair shops again (as a matter of fact this has happened a few times). However, here at BCFS, incompetance only seems to be swept under the carpet or worse yet, rewarded!!!

pnwtraveler said:

So far though it doesn't appear that BC Ferries is having any impact on the efficiency of the building of the Super C's. So maybe that is a clue or maybe not.

Interesting, isn't it?? Might be some subtle hint here .......

[queenofcowichan]

6:35PM
May 20

The Queen of Oak Bay is at the lay-up berth at Langdale. She just arrived in the last 5 or so hours as she was not there earlier this afternoon.

Source, Langdale cam

[Hardy]

queenofcowichan said:

6:35PM
May 20

The Queen of Oak Bay is at the lay-up berth at Langdale. She just arrived in the last 5 or so hours as she was not there earlier this afternoon.

Source, Langdale cam

Well, this is good news indeed, if she is ready to resume service tomorrow (Holiday Monday). I don't see her yet in the RBI-CV area, but maybe ..... :-)

[Political Incorrectness]

Actually, she is not there at langdale, there is absolutely nothing in the layup berth.

[queenofcowichan]

Well, that is strange indeed. Maybe it was the Queen of Surrey. As there was diffently one of them in that dock just before I posted that post. If the Traffic is light I would suppose they may have used the lay-up berth for some strange reason for the Queen of Surrey.

[Ferryman]

Right now, the Oak Bay is sitting in Berth 3, with engines running still. I'm assuming she'll pull out again in a few minutes, once the Capilano and Cowichan arrive.

www.westvancouver.com/webcams/hbaycam/

[Queen of Nanaimo Teen]

My family and I have been planning our ferry trip this summer, and I ran into the same problem I had last year. Will it be Quadra Queen ll or Tachek? Are either going to be going into refit in July?

[Mike C]

Nope... the Quadra Queen already had her refit. Unless, of course, they secretly pull it out of service just to make users frustrated. I'm not omitting that possibility.

BTW - the Oak Bay is on time for probably the first time in her carreer. The Coquitlam is sitting in the layover berth at Langdale.

[kylefossett]

the queen of oak bay was out and about doing sea trials in the straight yesterday. overheard them a few times communicating with victoria traffic

[Deleted]

I will try to answer a few of Hardy's questions. I did work for the government for a few years.

Hardy, said:
(Or are our ferries really in that bad of a shape that once you "lift the hood" that you find all sorts of other things that are wrong and need to be fixed before the vessel returns to service?)

With an aging fleet anything is possible when you "lift the hood".
Usually before a contract is tendered, the engineers would put together a package of what work they want done (not what needs to be done) on the Project. This package could include drawings and other things, and it available to any company who is seriously going to bid on the project.
Companies then bid on the project. Once a contract has been awarded and the vessel going to the shipyard. The shipyard has engineers, who will look over the vessel and will try to get "add-on jobs." Some of these add on jobs--may be safety issues, may have to be done to satisfy Transport Canada, or may be work that needs to be done, but was overlooked. Sometimes a part may have to be ordered and takes time in getting here. However, the work that is done has to be approved by BC Ferries, as they are paying the bill.

Hardy said:
(Did the shipyards bid too low and therefore are not prepared to run overtime shifts to cover minor delays, which then end up compounding over the length of the project?)

Traditionally, most Navy and BC Ferry work do not include overtime, unless it was an emergency. A lot of the delays could be because of parts and the "add on jobs."

More later.....

[Koastal Karl]

Queen of Saanich as seen Oct 16th at the Esquimalt Drydock. Looks like they are also doing some Funnel work as I could see something around the Funnel. No sign of the Powell River Queen in Victoria so she must be in Vancouver somewhere.


And according to RBI the Saanich is due back Friday Nov 16th!

[queenofcowichan]

Thanx Karl for the update.

I would asume that the Queen of Vancouver will go for her refitt as soon as the Saanich returns. She would be back in time for the X Mass rush. Then she would be needed for refitt relief for the Spirit class ships in the new year.

[Dane]

When was the Van's last refit?

[Coastal Canuck]

does any one know where the Northern Adventure is?

[Retrovision]

extreamme said:

does any one know where the Northern Adventure is?

She's been at Deas for refit up until recently if not still.

[ferrytraveller]

powell river queen isn't at Vancouver drydock as of 5pm today (not that i have ever seen her there before)
where is the tachek? klitas and kahloke?