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Post by whidbeyislandguy on Nov 8, 2008 20:04:04 GMT -8
Looks like the CHINOOK and SNOHOMISH are going to appreciating hands, eager to use them. I imagine that their nameboards will come off and stay here as they'll get new names down there. Good luck, Anacortes duo! That frees up two very good names for the new 144-car ferries. CHETZEMOKA and SNOHOMISH for Mukilteo. CHINOOK for the San Juans. ENETAI for the Bremerton run. That's if minds are eventually changed and four are built after all. I've already cemented QUILLAYUTE and QUILCENE as my choices for the new 64-car Keystone ferries. You seem to have forgotten the first new 144 is going to Anacortes.  He may have but, us Whidbey people haven't.... )grumble moan groan)  |
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Post by Barnacle on Nov 11, 2008 8:22:44 GMT -8
The name "Chinook" has been around Puget Sound for a long time in one form or another. I'd rather pick another name that has more significance for the Islands, myself.
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Post by Kahloke on Nov 11, 2008 9:27:52 GMT -8
I like the name Chetzemoka for the ferry bound for service at Whidbey, and I love the idea of resurrecting the name Enetai for the Bremerton-bound ferry. What would be a good name for the first 144 bound for island service?
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 11, 2008 11:22:21 GMT -8
I like the name Chetzemoka for the ferry bound for service at Whidbey, and I love the idea of resurrecting the name Enetai for the Bremerton-bound ferry. What would be a good name for the first 144 bound for island service? Even though the former vessel of the same name once served Whidbey, I'd say Kulshan would be a good name. It's the Native name for Mt. Baker and the mountain is such a prominent point from so many places in the islands it would be a good fit.  Klahanie wouldn't go amiss, either, being "great out doors." |
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Post by BreannaF on Nov 12, 2008 17:00:04 GMT -8
So, some legislator thinks that because we have sunk a lot of money into leasing passenger ferries in "emergencies", we should try to rescind the sale of the Snohomish and Chinook and sink even more money into rebuilding them. Even funnier is that some "reporter" at the Seattle Weekly rag thinks that is news: ===================================================== WSF Can’t Shake Passenger-Only FerriesEven after their boats are sold, the agency will be leasing foot ferries for years. By Chris Kornelis Published on November 11, 2008 at 9:17pm In 2007, the state legislature gave Washington State Ferries a mandate: Sell your passenger-only ferries and get out of that business. Any day now that edict will be fulfilled, as WSF expects to complete the sale of its Chinook and Snohomish vessels to the Bay Area's Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District. But even after WSF rids itself of the 350-passenger vessels, it could be years before WSF is able to wean itself from using passenger-only ferries in times of need. WSF says it has spent $440,000 leasing passenger-only fill-in boats over the past year. After the agency leases passenger-only ferries to fill in on the Port Townsend run for three weeks at the beginning of 2009, when the Steilacoom II (already on loan from Pierce County) goes in for Coast Guard–mandated repairs, WSF will creep closer to spending as much on leasing passenger-only ferries as it would have cost to rehab the boats it's selling. Combined, the mothballed vessels need around $1.1 million worth of work, according to the "10-Year Passenger Strategy" WSF released in 2005. And the Snohomish has been temporarily in service several times over the past year, including an impromptu route between downtown Seattle and Port Townsend during the holidays. The nation's largest ferry system has been shopping for extra boats since it found itself without any backup vessels last year after Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond pulled the four aging steel-electrics from service the day before Thanksgiving. In December, Gov. Chris Gregoire said she hoped three new boats could be delivered within 14 months. Ten months later, WSF is accepting bids in its second attempt at securing a boat builder, and doesn't believe new boats can be delivered before 2010. Until then, any time a vessel is pulled for unscheduled repairs, WSF will be looking outside its system for passenger-only backup boats. (WSF chief David Moseley has said the agency continues to lease passenger-only vessels because he can't find any available auto ferries to lease.) Meanwhile, according to WSF's legal team, only the governor can stay the sale of the Snohomish and Chinook. Moseley has not asked for the governor to intervene, and Gregoire does not intend to. "The governor supports WSDOT and Washington State Ferries leadership, and is currently not considering interrupting the legislatively mandated process that is in motion to sell these ferries," says Gregoire spokeswoman Laura Lockard. Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo), a member of the House Transportation Committee who voted in favor of House Bill 2273, which mandated the sale of the passenger-only ferries, believes Moseley should ask the governor to allow the boats to remain in the system. "If I were the governor," says Appleton, "that's what I'd do." ==================================================== Note: That's why she's not the governor..... |
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Post by SS San Mateo on Nov 16, 2008 19:17:11 GMT -8
The purchase could be approved this week. I just looked at the agenda for the Golden Gate Transit Board of Directors meeting for 11/21 and saw this: "Approve Actions Relative to the Procurement of Two New High-Speed Passenger Ferries " Source: goldengate.org/board/2008/Agendas/bd081121a.php (it's in item #7) |
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Post by SS San Mateo on Nov 21, 2008 7:50:25 GMT -8
Canceled ferry order forces layoffs at Nichols Bros.seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/388810_bizbriefs21.htmlNichols Bros. Boat Builders said it is laying off 30 employees because a customer decided to buy used ferries from Washington state rather than a new vessel. The Whidbey Island company said the layoffs could last three months and reduces its work force to 150. Nichols Bros. said it was a participant in the bidding for construction of a ferry for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 21, 2008 8:15:06 GMT -8
Golden Gate district to buy old Washington state high-speed ferries
Mark Prado
Posted: 11/20/2008 04:59:25 PM PST
Unable to unload a couple of old ferries on eBay, Washington State Ferries has found a buyer: the Golden Gate Bridge District.
On Thursday the bridge district's Building and Operating Committee moved ahead with a $19 million plan to buy the two high-speed ferries and fix them up.
With ridership growing and patrons unable to get on crowded morning boats, bridge officials want to add a third high-speed ferry with more capacity out of Larkspsur.
The district had budgeted $12 million for the project and hoped to have a new ferry on the bay by next year. But this summer a single bid on the ferry came in at $18 million.
Now the district will purchase the two, 10-year old mothballed boats from the Washington state ferry system for $2 million apiece and spend another $15 million refurbishing them. It will increase capacity on each boat from 350 passengers to 450.
Engines, seating, bike racks, restrooms and snack bars would be replaced or installed, said James Swindler, ferry division manager. Both boats would be re-done by 2010.
"We can do this without having to do any major structural modifications," Swindler said.
The ferries were built in the late 1990s and used through 2003, but Washington voters passed a ballot measure that cut state funding, and the state could no longer afford to operate the vessels.
The state has since tried to sell the boats on eBay for $9 million for the pair, but there were no takers.
"Instead of one ferry we can get two," said spokeswoman Mary Currie. "It allows us more flexibility to serve our passengers."
The district foresees using one of the new ferries initially - before it is refurbished - to stand in for the 390-passenger M.V. Del Norte, the district's original high-speed ferry, while it is dry-docked for new engines in 2009.
Ferry officials also said it is important to have a high-speed backup to keep schedules on time in case one of the two main vessels breaks down. The new ferries also will allow the district to potentially sell two of its three slower Spaulding boats.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth is asking the district to install the cleanest engines and technology available as the ferries are revamped. District officials said they would keep board members updated on the latest technology.
The Washington boats - which had run between Seattle and Bremerton - are currently known as the Chinook and Snohomish. They likely will be renamed the MV Golden Gate and the MV Napa.
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Post by Kahloke on Nov 29, 2008 9:08:40 GMT -8
A little blurb in the PI this morning about the sale of Chinook and Snohomish. There's not much that we don't already know, except that the boats are expected to lay around here for at least another few months. seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/389976_ferry29.htmlFast ferries sold for $4 million State pulled them from service over beach damage By LARRY LANGE P-I REPORTER A California transportation authority has agreed to buy Washington's two fastest passenger ferries for $4 million and put them into service on San Francisco Bay. The Chinook and the Snohomish, long moored at the Bainbridge Island maintenance yard, may remain there for months, perhaps as long as February, while the final sale arrangements are completed with the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The district will post a deposit with Washington State Ferries, and the sale will close when amendments are complete on a federal grant helping the district to renovate the vessels. The deal came after months of attempts by Washington officials to sell the vessels, including two unsuccessful tries on eBay. The two catamaran-hull ferries were built in Anacortes in 1998 and 1999 and placed on the Seattle-Bremerton run, where they cruised at speeds of close to 45 mph. They routinely made the cross-sound trip in less than 40 minutes, compared with an hour by car ferry, but were taken off the Bremerton route. They were shut down several years later after beach landowners sued, alleging damage from the vessels' wakes. The state settled the case. State legislators later ordered the state ferry system out of the foot-ferry business because of the high cost of the service. In recent years the Snohomish served briefly as a backup boat for the Port Townsend-Keystone route and on the Seattle-Bremerton run. The vessels cost $19.6 million to build, of which $14.1 million came from federal transit grants. State Transportation Department officials had hoped to get $9 million for the two ferries. The California district operates ferries between San Francisco and Sausalito and Larkspur. |
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Post by SS Shasta on Jan 20, 2009 11:30:06 GMT -8
Are these vessels still at Eagle Harbor  . |
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Post by FNS on Jan 20, 2009 11:48:17 GMT -8
Are these vessels still at Eagle Harbor . I did see one of them through the fleet of ferries there on Saturday, January 10, from the Bainbridge terminal. |
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Post by Barnacle on Jan 20, 2009 22:37:45 GMT -8
They're still there; I do believe the sale is being finalized.
The Steel-Electrics are still present, also.
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Post by BreannaF on Jan 21, 2009 14:58:49 GMT -8
Apparently, it is done. =========================================== State Completes Sale of Foot Ferries That Once Served BremertonKitsap Sun staff Originally published 12:01 a.m., January 21, 2009 Updated 12:21 p.m., January 21, 2009 SEATTLE On Friday, Washington State Ferries closed the sale of the passenger-only fast ferries Chinook and Snohomish to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District of Larkspur, Calif. The two boats sold for $4 million. In 2006, the Legislature voted to end state funding for passenger-only ferries. In 2007, it directed WSF to sell the Chinook and Snohomish and put the proceeds in a passenger ferry account that will be used to help fund county-run passenger-only ferry service. Proceeds of the sale will go to the King County Ferry District and likely will be used to provide passenger-only service between Vashon Island and Seattle. The Chinook and Snohomish were built in the late 1990s and ran between Seattle and Bremerton from 1998 to 2003. Golden Gate has up to 90 days after close of escrow to get the boats from WSF's Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island. |
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Post by Electric Thunderbird on Apr 12, 2009 8:09:57 GMT -8
Have these vessels left Eagle Harbor yet and put into service?
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 12, 2009 14:22:32 GMT -8
Not to my knowledge.
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 12, 2009 21:05:55 GMT -8
They were still there as of Friday.
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 19, 2009 7:14:29 GMT -8
EGFleet and I were driving through town after dinner yesterday, surveying the activity at Dakota Creek Shipyard, and we spotted a vessel which looked suspiciously like the Snohomish but sporting the name of Napa and having a homeport of Larkspur, CA...
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 19, 2009 12:41:03 GMT -8
EGFleet and I were driving through town after dinner yesterday, surveying the activity at Dakota Creek Shipyard, and we spotted a vessel which looked suspiciously like the Snohomish but sporting the name of Napa and having a homeport of Larkspur, CA... Well Bay link does have one of too ferries that look like her. Yes, but they aren't painted in WSF green, are they? |
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Post by whidbeyislandguy on Apr 19, 2009 13:33:52 GMT -8
Ah.. good point.. Well i guess we now know they are getting ready for the move. And I am eating crow.  |
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Post by SS Shasta on Apr 19, 2009 17:33:00 GMT -8
I was wondering why these vessels were built with such a small passenger capacity? WSF lists that capacity as 350. In contrast, the older Skagit has a listed capacity of 1250 according to WSF. Considering their expensive upkeep, heavy fuel consumption, etc., could they ever be operated at a profit or break-even point with that small capacity?
Does anyone know how close to capacity the fast ferries are running on the Vashon run? Was Chinook and Snohomish ever considered for the Vashon/Seattle route, or were their passenger capacities too small?
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Post by SS San Mateo on Apr 19, 2009 17:57:46 GMT -8
I was wondering why these vessels were built with such a small passenger capacity? WSF lists that capacity as 350. In contrast, the older Skagit has a listed capacity of 1250 according to WSF. Considering their expensive upkeep, heavy fuel consumption, etc., could they ever be operated at a profit or break-even point with that small capacity? The listed capacity of 1250 for the Skagit is dead wrong. It should be 250 (which is the listed capacity for the Kalama, her sistership). Does anyone know how close to capacity the fast ferries are running on the Vashon run? Was Chinook and Snohomish ever considered for the Vashon/Seattle route, or were their passenger capacities too small? AFAIK, neither vessel was considered for the route. The PO facility at Vashon cannot accomodate them (the pontoon would most likely have to replaced with a larger one). I read somewhere that the replacement vessels for the Seattle/Vashon route would have a smaller capacity than the current vessels. |
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 19, 2009 17:58:08 GMT -8
That's a typo on WSF's part. Kalama's passenger capacity is listed at 250. Skagit's would be the same. I have copies of those foldaway fleet guides, and that document also lists the capacity as 250 for both Skagit and Kalama.
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 19, 2009 17:58:44 GMT -8
I was wondering why these vessels were built with such a small passenger capacity? WSF lists that capacity as 350. In contrast, the older Skagit has a listed capacity of 1250 according to WSF. Considering their expensive upkeep, heavy fuel consumption, etc., could they ever be operated at a profit or break-even point with that small capacity? Does anyone know how close to capacity the fast ferries are running on the Vashon run? Was Chinook and Snohomish ever considered for the Vashon/Seattle route, or were their passenger capacities too small? 1250 is a typo. I don't have the slightest idea where you'd put 1250 passengers on a 112' boat. |
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 19, 2009 18:04:07 GMT -8
I read somewhere that the replacement vessels for the Seattle/Vashon route would have a smaller capacity than the current vessels. I know Kitsap County was looking at 149 passenger boats a few years ago for that passenger-only ferry initiative which failed miserably - have no idea what King County has in mind for Seattle-Vashon. |
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Post by Barnacle on Apr 19, 2009 19:11:28 GMT -8
Probably much the same, so they can get away with an even smaller crew and lesser levels of credentials among the few crew present.
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