Island Home ferries to replace aging boats for Port Townsend runs

WOODS HOLE, Mass. — When engineers with Washington State Ferries visited this Massachusetts town in February to look at its Island Home ferry, winds were blowing at 40 knots and the seas were 8 feet high.

If those conditions existed on the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry run with the temporary boat now being used, the trip would have been canceled, said Ron Wohlfrom, vessel project engineer for Washington ferries.

But the Island Home did operate. Weather has rarely caused it to skip a run.

This ferry, which operates between Woods Hole and Martha's Vineyard, is the same type of boat the state plans to build to replace the Steel Electric ferries taken out of service in November. The state hopes to have two Island Home boats on the route in 2010.

"The boat is about the same size as the Steel Electrics and has about the same car-carrying capacity," said Wohlfrom. "With the design already in existence, most of the drawings can be quickly changed and we can get it out for bids quickly."

The Island Home, which has been operating for about 18 months in Martha's Vineyard, was designed by Seattle's Elliott Bay Design. It was the winner among four other ferry types, according to Edward Jackson, a ferry captain who was on the design team with Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority.

The sleek ferry is 255 feet long and can carry 60 cars, and up to as many as 76 with an added lift. It can handle 1,200 passengers and travels at about 16 knots. It takes 45 minutes for the 3-½-mile crossing. The Port Townsend-Keystone crossing is about five miles, and state officials say its Island Home boat will carry only about 650 passengers.

Rave reviews

On the Island Home, there are three sun decks, a quiet area for studying and free Wi-Fi — something Washington State Ferries doesn't have. [Washington ferries charge for the service.]

"It's tremendous," said Rick Labrecque, an Edgartown banker who rides the ferry every day. He reads and works on his computer during the 45-minute crossing. "The boat hardly lists at all." He said at $7 for a one-way walk-on ticket — and less for his multiday pass — it's also fairly inexpensive.

"The ferry is one of the best," said Keith Dodson, who has been commuting on it for a year. "It really handles the rough water and it has a huge media center with free Wi-Fi."

Wohlfrom said Washington state's new ferry will be very similar to the Island Home. There will be outdoor seating, though not as much as on the Nantucket ferry.

And unlike the state's other ferries, the new ones will have two 6-foot-high doors on rollers at each end, which help keep water off the deck in rough crossings. The Nantucket ferry has a full-sized door that closes off the ends of the ferry, and Jeff Brown, port engineer with the Nantucket ferry authority, said it saves a lot of cars from being damaged by saltwater. He said that without the doors, one-quarter of all trips would be canceled.

In 18 months, maybe one trip has been aborted, Brown said.

The boat's snack bar was designed after those on Washington State Ferries, he said.

"It's a very quiet boat," said Wohlfrom. "There's not a lot of vibration and it has a very smooth operation."

Money budgeted

He said the state was surprised to learn the Island Home has the same engines as the state has already purchased for the yet-to-be-built 144-car ferries.

The Legislature this year appropriated $84.5 million to replace the 80-year-old Steel Electric Class vessels that were pulled out of service because of damaged hulls.

The state initially planned to build one boat identical to the Steilacoom II, which has been leased by Pierce County to the state for the Port Townsend run. But when bids for that boat came in $9 million over the estimate, the state decided to abandon that effort and instead build just two Island Home boats.

The Nantucket Island Home boat was built in Mississippi for $33 million.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com