Official Number: 508160    Call Sign: WX9439 Length: 382' 2"  Beam: 73' 2" Draft: 18' 6''   Auto Deck Clearance: 16' Horsepower: 8,000   Speed in Knots: 20 Max Passengers: 2500  Max Vehicles: 144 City Built: San Diego Year Built/Re-built: 1967 Name Translation: Chinook jargon: "fast" or "Speedy."  Drawing courtesy of Johan Iversen.

Save for the addition of an elevator, the Hyak doesn't look tremendously different from when she first arrived on Puget Sound with her green stripe too high, as depicted in the drawing by Johan Iversen at the top of the page.  In the  photo here,  courtesy of Matt Masuoka, the new elevator shaft is visible behind the wheelhouse/crews quarters at left.

Ever the workhorse, the  Hyak, despite having a lot of work done on it in recent years, still suffers from being the least attractive ferry in the fleet--as least as far as her interior goes.     The recent work done on the boat, including getting the refurbished engines from the  Jumbo Class and an elevator being installed, have extended the first Super Class ferry's life, which was originally scheduled to be cut short in  2008.  After the car tab tax was cut in 1999, the money to do a true mid-life upgrade on the Hyak vanished.   Over the next ten years the ferry was patched up, cleaned and kept in service, with still the eye toward retirement.      Several things happened in the fleet, including the sudden withdrawal of the Steel Electrics in 2007.  Plans to retire the Hyak were quietly vanished.      Realizing that the Hyak could be fully refurbished for an additional twenty years of service, the legislature has acted and has budgeted in $20 million  to finish the work on the ferry that has been coming in fits and starts over the years--including a much needed interior updating.      The first of the Super Class will now be the last retired--reversing the order in which they came.  As it currently stands, the Elwha, last of the Supers to arrive, will go first, followed by the Kaleetan, Yakima and finally the Hyak--all assuming the state can get new vessels built to replace them.      The Hyak has no permanent job.  She can most frequently be found working either the San Juan Islands or more often than not on the Bremerton route on which she started back in 1967 when she retired the Kalakala.      When she will get in for her upgrades is not known.  The ferry system has absolutely no back up ferries and is likely not to have any for several more years.  It is possible that the Hyak won't get in for her full MLU until she can be spared--which at this point may be an additional five to seven years.      Until then, tired though she may look, the Hyak continues to provide reliable service where ever she works.

This postcard of the original model of the Hyak shows how her paint scheme might have looked.  Thankfully, she nor any of the other Supers were painted this way.

Looking much as she did when new, the Hyak's interior is vintage 1967.  Photo courtesy  I.S. Black.

The Hyak's only concession to decoration can still be found on many of the original table tops throughout the vessel.  At one time there were large framed historical photos throughout the ferry, but they disappeared about ten years ago.  At right, some of the most uncomforable chairs ever put in a Washington State Ferry.  The can still be found on the Hyak and Elwha--the Elwha's reupholstered in blue, the Hyak still in their original "earth tones."  Photos courtesy of Matt Masuoka.

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Here's an interesting picture of when the Hyak ran around  in Anacortes on April 20th, 1986. All 250 people on board were evacuated. The  Coast Guard determined that a navigational error caused the accident. About $200,000.00  damage was done to the ferry.