Recent events should give you plenty of reason. Check Google news for all the stories in the past few months on the state of the fleet. With the Steel Electrics gone, there are no back up boats save for the basically useless 34 car ferry Hiyu. What that means is, if your'e trying to get to Vashon Island, the Kitsap Peninsula or the San Juans and your boat breaks down, there is no boat to replace it, and won't be until it gets fixed.
In addition, the fleet now has one 60 year old boat, three boats that are 50 years old , and five that are 40. The retirement age for most ferries in Europe is 30-35 years of age. With our more sheltered waters, we can get more use out of our boats, but make no mistake: the Washington State Ferries fleet is old and needs replacing.
No one would expect you to run your car 16 hours (or more) a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, slamming it into forward and reverse without coming to a complete stop 20 times a day or more and expect it to last for 60 years. Add to that sticking into salt water for that amount of time. Boats wear out.
The engineers and maintenance crews at Washington State Ferries do a fantastic job at keeping the vessels shipshape and running well, (particularly given that for some odd reason the legislature refuses to fund the ferries adequately) but age, alas, gets us all. Parts become scarce or obsolete and boats, well, just get old.
Why 144 Car Boats?
The 144 car boat, which right now is about the size of a Super Class, is just about the best fit for most of the major routes on Puget Sound--Vashon-Southworth-Fauntleroy, Bremerton-Seattle, Mukilteo-Clinton, San Juans-Anacortes.
Winslow-Seattle and Kingston-Edmonds have larger boats because they merit it.
When Will They Be Built?
After the building cycle for the new second generation Steel Electrics for the Point Defiance-Tahlequah run and the Port Townsend Keystone run (Roughly around 2012.). The funding currently allows for a fourth 64 car boat if there aren't funds for a 144 car. Most everyone agrees that a fourth 64 car ferry would be essentially useless. It would be too small to fill in anywhere on any of the major routes and wouldn't even be of use for the inter-island route in the San Juans.
What Will the Names of the New Boats Be?
No one knows at this point, but happily there is much interest at Washington State Ferries to reuse some of the names of vessels that sailed along Puget Sound in the past, and of course keeping the Native American/Chinook jargon names.. Having discussed this much with fellow ferry fans up and down the West Coast and in British Columbia the most popular choices seem to be at this point:
Chetzemoka named for one of the "Wood Electrics" that used to sail mainly between Clinton (Columbia Beach) and Mukilteo.
Kulshan after that rather unlovely flat-topped boat that also sailed the Mukilteo route and on Hood Canal. Also a rather nice Black Ball steamer had the name. She's still around, (the ugly flat top, not the steamer) but under a new name, which is good because Kulshan sounds nice and is a good name for a ferry.
Enetai after one of the old single-ended ferries that used to sail between Bremerton and Seattle. Meaning "Across or on the other side" The first Enetai had a good long life and is still around today under her old name, Santa Rosa. Aside from sounding nice, "across or on the other side" seems to be a very apt name for a ferry.
Quillayute The first Quillayute actually never sailed for Washington State Ferries, having gone up to Canada to sail for Black Ball Ltd and later for B.C. Ferries. However, once the Quinault is retired, it will be the first time in close to 100 years that a "Q" ferry hasn't been on Puget Sound. This of course will result in a horrible curse being unleashed on Puget Sound!
Okay, I'm kidding about the curse. But come on, we've had a "Q" boat on the Sound and environs for 100 years! Let's not break the streak!
Some other names that have had support: Quilcene for the the Q boat, Solduc, Klahanie, Kahloke.
Names That Shouldn't be considered:
Kehloken while a cool name meaning "swan", the vessel these days is mostly remember for the fact that it was the ferry that took the Japanese residents of Bainbridge Island off the island to be placed in internment camps during WWII. Point of fact, if you do a search on the name, that's usually the first thing that comes up. Kahloke (Kah-low-Key) is a variation on the same word and means "white swan." (According to the Black Ball publicity of the 1950's that is)
Clallam No. Just no. You never, ever name a vessel after one that has had any sort of disaster associated with it. You have to figure that is why there's never been another Titanic. Just ask the ferry operators in San Francisco that (foolishly, in my opinion) named one of their boats Peralta. The Clallam, for the record, sank in a storm with the loss of 54 lives--nearly all of them women and children..
Kalakala there was only one of her, and heck, she's still around. Even if she weren't, the ferry is just so unique that it shouldn't ever be reused. I think you'd probably find similar opposition to using Vashon. Aside from the obvious fact that the name is not Chinook/Native American, she's too fondly remembered as the last all-wood ferry in the WSF fleet to be replaced by anything of steel.
Hopefully we can avoid another dull and rather uncreative class designation as well... "Jumbo Mark II" leave a lot to be desired...I have never understood why they couldn't have been the "Tacoma Class." I dread these becoming the "Super Mark II's" or "Issaquah Mark II's" or something like that. Whichever boat is first off the ways, let that be that class name.
"Kulshan Class" has a nice ring to it.
More Information will be posted as it becomes available. As always you can email me with any thoughts or musings on the subject of the new boats.
We're two full building cycles behind folks. We need to get a lot done and soon.
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