PORT TOWNSEND – The Klickitat, the lone Steel Electric ferry serving the Port Townsend-Keystone route, is operating with 35 hull fractures, but Washington State Ferries officials say the age-related damage does not compromise the watertight integrity or safety of the 80-year-old vessel.
“Right now, our plan is to bring the Klickitat in and fix all the cracks noted in the survey,” said Tim Browning, port engineer for the state ferries system, who added that he had no date for pulling the Klickitat out of service.
The Klickitat has served the run alone since Sept. 9, when the Nisqually was pulled from service to remove ballast concrete from the vessel’s hull for closer Coast Guard inspection.
The ferry Quinault may replace the Klickitat.
The Quinault‘s 48 fractures were recently repaired, and it is getting a new stern tube – a process that could take another month – according to a report by International Inspection Inc , a private firm that surveyed the hulls of each of the four Steel Electrics serving the Port Townsend-Keystone route, at an average cost of $43,000 for each hull survey.
The Nisqually has 38 fractures, the report said.
“We are finding more corrosion on the Nisqually,” Browning said Friday, as state ferries officials addressed a Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Partnership group meeting at the Pope Marine building downtown.
‘There are some areas where the steel needs replacement,” Browning said.
“We’re learning as we go with this whole process.”
A decision on the future of the Nisqually, which may be headed for a second retirement, has been delayed for at least a month to assess corrosion, ferry officials said.
Retiring the Nisqually and using the money saved to maintain the other vessels is under consideration, state ferries officials said.
Other factors come into play, including the condition of the other three Steel Electrics.
The Illahee is now filing in on the Anacortes-San Juan Island route after it’s stern tube was replaced in September.
The Nisqually survived a collision with a Chinese freighter in 1963. It ran aground in 1994 on Elwha Rock off Orcas Island and lost power and rammed into the Lopez Island dock in 1995.
