Skansonia

[Barnacle]

Wow. I had no idea that the owners were letting her go so badly. The ends are sagging, as is the middle of the house. I never understood why they put that vinyl siding on her, either. I wonder how watertight the old girl is these days?

[whidbeyislandguy]

Barnacle, Iw a thinking the samething. She is fading fast.

[Rhody]

I read recently that the owners had poured a bunch of money into her interior, next project should be her exterior. Perhaps they didn"t think it a priority because guests wouldn"t be looking @ her from the Lake but rather the dock.

[northwesterner]

Skansonia is much scarier than a ferry like the Olympic or even the steel electrics. The ends have been sagging like that for at least 5 years. I've been waiting to wake up one morning with her on the bottom. You know the bilge pumps must be working 24/7 to keep her afloat.

She probably hasn't been hauled out to have her WOOD hull examined since the mid 1960s!

[SS Shasta]

Has she had her engine and other power/mechanical equipment removed?

[Barnacle]

I would suspect not--the cost to do that would have been impractical. It may have been stripped for parts, though.

[Rhody]

[Rhody]

[Rhody]

I was kayaking on Lake Union, I got real close to the Skansonia's hull. Looks like its getting very rotted in spots, especially @ the waterline, the Vinyl siding they have on her is starting to peel away showing more boards that don't look so good. Hope they put the old girl in for some work....

[steamfan]

The topic of the Skansonia's powerplants actually came up visiting my grandpa the other day. They are apparently still in place. When she moved moorings years ago, the owners dredged up a former engineer to try and fire the engines to move the boat. Only one would start, but they did move her under her own power.

[EGfleet]

Nice set of photos of the Skansonia and the horrible condition of her engines, which, according to poster Old Tacoma Marine, haven't been fired since 1970. Looking at the photos, there is little doubt to the veracity of that statement.

www.flickr.com/photos/oldtacomamarine/sets/72157615907518506/

All the photos were taken on 25 March, 2009.

[suburbanite]

Take a look at just after the 3:45 mark for two quick views of the Skansonia just north of the floating bridge in 1983.

[SolDuc]

Just about all that you can get of the Skansonia from the Burke Gilman trail:

MV Skansonia - Ex Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

[SolDuc]

From the University bridge yesterday. Not looking as bad as the Kalakala but still in pretty bad shape. It's crazy that the company doesn't get her into a drydock or anything. It's not like there's none in a 100 mile radius around the boat!

MV Skansonia in Lake Union - Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

[northwesterner]

Nov 4, 2013 22:29:33 GMT -8 SolDuc said:

From the University bridge yesterday. Not looking as bad as the Kalakala but still in pretty bad shape. It's crazy that the company doesn't get her into a drydock or anything. It's not like there's none in a 100 mile radius around the boat!

The Skansonia probably hasn't been out of the water for an inspection in over 30 years. Her hull looks increasingly rough. The bow aprons on both ends look like they are literally going to fall off and into the lake. I've heard from some in the lake union boating community that she leaks badly and is kept afloat (barely) by some pretty high powered pumps. Watch out if there is a prolonged power outage; without power to run those pumps she'll be sitting on the bottom of the lake.

[SS San Mateo]

There was a recent article in the Kingston Community News that mentioned the following about the Skansonia:

Rather than keep her wood hull watertight, Saskonia sits in a floating steel tray.

Source: www.kingstoncommunitynews.com/community/226487921.html


I didn't see any evidence of a floating steel tray in that last picture (there does seem to be something around the hull, but I can't tell what it is).

[FNS]

Dec 17, 2012 8:23:12 GMT -8 suburbanite said:

Take a look at just after the 3:45 mark for two quick views of the Skansonia just north of the floating bridge in 1983.

I remember seeing the SKANSONIA for my first time.

It was during the 1973-1974 school year.  I was in sixth grade and going to a private school in Bellevue.

It was a long van ride each day and my principal was the driver.  It went from north Seattle to Montlake to Rainier and across the I-90 bridge.

During that school year, the SKANSONIA was moved to a spot near Leschi.  It was neat seeing her on a daily basis on the weekdays after the move and I used Harre Demoro's book "The Evergreen Fleet" to study the history of this former South Sound ferry.  I borrowed that book from the library many times!  I now own a copy.

It was fun to see her on the televised boat races each August then after until she was moved to the northern part of Lake Union around the mid-1980s.

[SolDuc]

Some of the Skansonia from today's kayak trip on Lake Union:
From this angle she doesn't seem to be that bad:

MV Skansonia in Lake Union - ex Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

But from this you see plants everywhere, where they belong and where they don't:

MV Skansonia in Lake Union - ex Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

The other end, doing some advertisement for the seagulls (aka useless, there's nothing there except for two barges.

MV Skansonia in Lake Union - ex Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Getting artistic with the steel tray and floaters:

MV Skansonia in Lake Union - ex Washington State Ferries by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

[northwesterner]

Nov 5, 2013 8:26:39 GMT -8 SS San Mateo said:

There was a recent article in the Kingston Community News that mentioned the following about the Skansonia:

Rather than keep her wood hull watertight, Saskonia sits in a floating steel tray.

Source: www.kingstoncommunitynews.com/community/226487921.html


I didn't see any evidence of a floating steel tray in that last picture (there does seem to be something around the hull, but I can't tell what it is).

Well ... if you take a look at SolDuc's photos from today, she's sitting "in" something. A quick look on EGfleet's website has two pictures, one from 2007 and one from 2010. Whatever has been added to the hull was installed in that time period. How they did it without moving her, I don't quite understand.