Kwa-di Tabil Class Design & Construction

[FNS]

Jan 6, 2010 17:41:47 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

Jan 6, 2010 17:13:24 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

And here are some from Emory...

Where is the Hull being built?? I don't think the ferry is going to have a flat bottom with the passenger areas so close to the water...

The hull is being built in Seattle by Todd Shipyard. These three cabin sections will be barged to Seattle for mating onto the Main Deck superstructures. Then, this ferry will be completed in Everett.

[FNS]

Here are my contributions from our tour today.


The face of End Number One.


End Number One observatory.


End Number One observatory.


End Number One observatory. The hatch holes leading passengers out to the promenades will be larger when construction nears completion.


End Number One bridge.


Two wonderfully skilled laborers in action.


Looking down. When done, the crew will have a view of the bow.


As you can see, the bridge is really wide! The new MV CHETZEMOKA will be the first WSF ferry to have bridges that span the full beam.


End Number One lounge.


Standing on the Saloon Deck promenade. This is going to be one nice ferry to ride!


The central core.


As you can see, WSF is going for good looks on the CHETZY! Three windows on this side of the crew's lounge. You see only one side crew lounge window aboard the ISLAND HOME.


The central core from a distance.


A bird's eye view. This is how you'll see this from Fort Casey.


End Number One mast being readied for installation.


End Number One mast being readied for installation. It's going to be wonderful to see a US flag at each end of this ferry. I just don't understand why the SSA flies Old Glory at only one end on the ISLAND HOME.


A worker is on the End Number Two mast.


The central core.


A beautiful capture of the CHETZEMOKA's End Number Two face.


Many thanks to Nichols Brothers for kindly allowing us to tour their facility.


We go back to webcam capture mode and this is what we see just after our departure.

[lmtengs]

Jan 6, 2010 18:54:55 GMT -8 FNS said:

Hmm... Is that an old BC Ferry in behind??
edit: (written at 7pm, posted at 8pm) no they had a blue stripe on top of red... this is other way 'round.

[FNS]

Jan 6, 2010 19:00:58 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

Jan 6, 2010 18:54:55 GMT -8 FNS said:

Hmm... Is that an old BC Ferry in behind??

Wishful thinking! ;D




That's one of Nichols' cats in for servicing.

[Low Light Mike]

Jan 6, 2010 19:00:58 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

Hmm... Is that an old BC Ferry in behind??

Yes, It's the Queen of Saanich. She's finally been sold, and she's being updated at Nichols Brothers Shipyard for use on the Bremerton run.

With the wide-spread publicity from the recent scrapping of the Willapa, the residents of Bremerton have been reminded of the beauty of a single-ended vessel sailing through Rich Passage. The soon to be refitted and renamed 'Saanich will soon be a reminder of those good old days.

[Kahloke]

Excellent photos, Ferrynut and Emory. You guys were so lucky to be able to get a tour of Chetzy while under construction - I'm jealous ;D The boat's really coming along nicely now - can't wait until all the pieces get assembled together.

[lmtengs]

Jan 6, 2010 19:10:31 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Jan 6, 2010 19:00:58 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

Hmm... Is that an old BC Ferry in behind??

Yes, It's the Queen of Saanich. She's finally been sold, and she's being updated at Nichols Brothers Shipyard for use on the Bremerton run.

With the wide-spread publicity from the recent scrapping of the Willapa, the residents of Bremerton have been reminded of the beauty of a single-ended vessel sailing through Rich Passage. The soon to be refitted and renamed 'Saanich will soon be a reminder of those good old days.

Oops, flug! You made a dire mistake! Saanich was in Slug-blue when she was retired... maybe you're thinking of her long-lost cousin, Queen of Sidney, or the Ghost of the QoVictoria...unless...no. It couldn't be! I think it's the first CLEAR picture of the Queen of Richmond! Wow!!!

[Barnacle]

Gentlemen, thank you for sharing your tour photos! I am relieved to see the wheelhouses look a bit more practical in size than they initially appeared. (They always look in the photos like two people would have to turn sideways to pass.)

Still, I'm hoping the radars will be on the forward console instead of independent pedestals (typical WSF installation) or they'll lose floor space in a hurry... ;D

And one last thing, for the BC Brigade: does BC Ferries paint the overheads (ceilings) in their pilothouses black? Most, if not all, WSF pilothouses have black overheads to reduce glare, which is why I was surprised to see the Island Home's P/H ceiling is white.

Again, thank you for sharing!

[Kahloke]

The pilot house ceilings on the FSG new-builds (ie. Coastals and Norex) are blue:


Older vessels do not necessarily have dark ceilings, such as the Queen of Vancouver shown here:

[fargowolf]

Nov 27, 2009 21:50:21 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

I agree with you. Bikes can be heavy, and It's often hard to get them up even not-so-steep stairs, especially if their long. I wouldn't even bother bringing my bike up those stairs shown in the picture in the last post. Too cumbersome and difficult. Maybe you could ask a crew member if there's a space on the main level of the car deck that you can place your bike safely.

Maybe they'll be nice and put in an elevator? Probably not, but it would be nice. On the BC Ferries like the Spirit class and the Coastal class they have racks on the car deck that hold between 4 and 8 bikes. Maybe that's the case on these new ferries?

I think they will end up putting bikes in the free spaces (Or vacant motorcycle spots) on the vehicle deck. A fully loaded touring bike is far from light, especially if it's a mountain bike. The same is true of tandem (Bikes for two or more), adult trikes and quadracycles. Using the vehicle deck is simply more practical.

[Freeland]

Front page of Today's South Whidbey Record says that Nichols will be barging out two of the three segments of the Chetzemoka at the end of this week.

Title of article is "Nichols Set to Catch The next Ferry."
and subtitle "Superstructure of Chetzemoka to leave the Yard Friday.

The South Whidby Record article has just been posted this evening. It is too long to copy and paste. One thing Nichols
will have plenty of work to do next year.

www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/news/81276207.htm

Emory at Holmes Harbor

[Freeland]

They have moved the Chetz forward by 50 yards and it is now
resting at the front gate.

The Bridge and the middle section will exit Friday by Barge. The end that is towards the Cam Camera is still in original position and probably will remain behind for short period........

Emory at Holmes Harbor

[chief]

To Shasta, the Island Home Class is a product of the financial crisis in the state.

WSF will build three 64 car vessels instead of four 144 car vessels. There is legislation but no funding for a fourth vessel. The fourth vessel can be either a 64 or a 144 if funding is available. In either case it will not be contract for until the biennium after the next one (if ever).

Now, will there be money for a 144 (or even another 64 from MMH home district) while the Viaduct and the 520 bridge projects are underfunded? That seems unlikely given the billions required for those projects.

I think the fleet we have is the WSF fleet for the forseeable future. WSF has decided to perform a major overhaul of the 144 car Hyak and to make significant investments in Yakima and Kaleetan. Even now the Elwha is being upgraded to allow continued service to Sydney. The new Super renovation program effectively replaces the WSF 144 construction program.

That is all about the capital budget. What drives fare prices are operating costs. The new 64s will also have an impact on that side of the ledger.

Small vessels, particularly small car decks, increase operating costs. The legislature has set a target of farebox recovery at 80%. That is they want to subsidize only 20% of ferry operating costs.

The small vessels in WSF recover less than 50% of their operating costs because they just don't have the capacity to generate more because of their size and where they are employed. In fact the Chetz will recover well under 40% of her operating costs if she operates in the PT to Key route.

Across the fleet, as the number of small vessels goes up so does the subsidy requirement and so will fare prices. Eventually they will reach equilibrium but they are not there yet. We will need to raise prices further which will drop ridership further.

As long as the legislature requires high farebox recovery but only builds small vessels WSF will continue it's death spiral.

The new 64s burn more fuel than the Steel Electrics because they have more than two times the horsepower as the ships they replace but have the same vehicle and passenger capacity. The Island Home actually turns off her engines at the dock and ties the vessel up completely. WSF turn arounds are so short as to make that infeasible without causing major damage to the engines from the start stop cycles.

This class also harms our cost efficiency by their displacing the highly fuel efficient 144 car class. The 144s were extensively tested and modeled to increase fuel efficiency over any other class. They would have carried the same capacity as the Super but burned less fuel than a Issaquah. So the 64s represent a lost opportunity to reduce operating costs and increase revenue. They are an efficiency flip flop.

By the way the engines and reduction gears that went into the 64s belonged to the 144 car project and were paid for by federal money.

[FNS]

Jan 13, 2010 14:01:23 GMT -8 Freeland said:

The have moved the Chetz forward by 50 yards and is now
resting at the front gate. It and middle section will exit Friday
by Barge. The end that was towards the Cam Camera is still
in that postion and probably will remain behind........Emory at Holmes Harbor

And, in this 1418PST capture, you can see the moved cores. The Number One End core and the central core. This leaves the Number Two End core to be moved.

[Freeland]

Here is the article from South Whidbey Record, it finally appeared
this evening on their web site. I re edited my message from above.

www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/news/81276207.html

Looks like Nichols will have it share of work this year.
They also have 8 car Ferry they are building for someone in California.
They have good balance of things to build this coming year.

Emory at Holmes Harbor

[FNS]

The CHETZEMOKA's cabin moves are becoming closer to reality.

Just spotted two tugs on a tracker this evening. At 2130PST, the tugs LOIS H and JENNIFER H were abeam Clinton running north doing about 4 knots each. The LOIS H's destination sign shows "Freeland".

The LOIS H is the larger of the two.

marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.aspx?photoid=142867

marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.aspx?photoid=64618

The JENNIFER H is assisting the LOIS H.

marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.aspx?photoid=58660

[FNS]

The CHETZEMOKA's End Number One cabin core and the central cabin core are now out on the waters of Holmes Harbor being lifted onto a barge.

www2.whidbey.net/nichols/image003.jpg

[Barnacle]

If floating pieces of ice are called "bergy bits," would these be "Chetzie chunks?"

[whidbeyislandguy]

Jan 15, 2010 15:23:50 GMT -8 Barnacle said:

If floating pieces of ice are called "bergy bits," would these be "Chetzie chunks?"

LOL

[Jody]

Jan 15, 2010 15:23:50 GMT -8 Barnacle said:

If floating pieces of ice are called "bergy bits," would these be "Chetzie chunks?"

I do like that. Probably better than my thought, Chunkzamoka...

Just caught the bit on the naming of the class. The idea of calling them Little Boat seems appropriate, though it seems to have been rendered unpronounceable. Heck. It's grade school kids, right? Accessibility and marketability of the name means very little compared to the coolness factor, right? So, Kwa-di Tabil Class it is.

Jody

[FNS]

At 1830PST this evening, the tug LOIS H has set her propellers ahead in earnest and is underway for Seattle with End Number One cabin core and the central cabin core on her barge. Two of the three Nichols contributions to the construction of the new CHETZEMOKA are on their first water voyage (second for the Everett built decks Nichols' cabins are built on). Destination sign: Seattle.

[Freeland]

Looks like it passed our home about an hour ago. I should of looked out down the street to
see it go by with their lights on. Probably too dark to take a picture, but I will
keep this in mind, for Ferryboat number two. Let's see 20 months from now it will be
July 2011. Good....It will be daylight savings time.

Emory at Holmes Harbor

[FNS]

Jan 15, 2010 19:47:59 GMT -8 Freeland said:

Looks like it passed our home about an hour ago. I should of looked out down the street to
see it go by with their lights on. Probably too dark to take a picture, but I will
keep this in mind, for Ferryboat number two. Let's see 20 months from now it will be
July 2011. Good....It will be daylight savings time.

Emory at Holmes Harbor

I think it would be this Summer 2010 when we'll see the cabin cores for the second ferry leave NB.



It was September 4, 2009, when I first started viewing NB's cam on this project. It has taken a few months from when the first flats were laid on NB's yard to when the CHETZY's ready cabin cores are leaving.

So, give all parties at least a few months of initial steel and aluminum work and we should see new flats laid at NB for the cabin cores of the second ferry and a summer trip for them to Seattle.

[FNS]

01-15-2010 2115PST


The LOIS H, with the two first cabin cores of the new CHETZEMOKA on her barge's deck, were passing Clinton ferry dock. If we could only rewind the clocks, we'd be seeing the old CHETZEMOKA doing trips on the Mukilteo run.


From the WSF Clinton Dock cam, we see the LOIS H within the green circle. KITTITAS is made fast for the night.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

01-15-2010 2315PST



The tow has passed by Edmonds. In the below picture from the WSF Edmonds dock cam, I was able to pick out that small dot in the green circle representing the tug.



Edmonds is where the old CHETZEMOKA started her Puget Sound career doing trips to Port Townsend.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

01-16-2010 0108PST



The tow is now on the home stretch to Todd. Entering Elliott Bay.

[Scott2]

I hope when the mount the wheelhouses on the rightful decks that they weld them in place facing the right way.....looks kind of odd with the back of the wheelhouse facing the bow.