Alaska Ship & Drydock hosts ferry christening

Alaska Ship & Drydock, Inc. and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough are preparing to christen the double-ended ferry M/V Ken Eichner 2 on Saturday. The vessel will be the borough’s second ferry providing service to the Greater Ketchikan International Airport and entering service as the sister ship to the M/V Oral Freeman. Both ships were built by Alaska Ship & Drydock, Inc. and are registered as Hull Nos. 001 and 004 respectively for the Ketchikan based shipbuilder.

The ferry project was funded through state legislative appropriations sponsored by Senator Bert Stedman and Representative Kyle Johansen. Bids for the new ferry were opened in January 8, 2009 with ASD submitting the lowest bid at $7,088,457, with the next bid coming in at $8.2 million.

The concept design for the new ferry was  by Matt Miller of Glosten and Associates and detail design was aby Mr. Callum Campbell of Capilano Maritime Design, Ltd. The vessel is designed for a service life of 25 years.

The ferry can carry 100 persons, 37 of them seated and either 23 autos, or one semi tractor/trailer and 17 autos. It is ABS classed  AMS, A1 +, Under 90 m Rules, RO RO Passenger Vehicle, Ferry Crew: 2 Licensed, Restricted Service: Ketchikan Alaska, Tongass Narrows, Fuel: 8,000 US Gallons

The vessel is powered by a pair of 850 HP Cummins KTA 38 MO Tier engines driving twin  CF3 stainless steel 5 bladed 70 inch x 41 inch propellers via Twin Disc MG 5225 DC reversing gears .Generators are two 55 kW Northern Lights M55 C2 Tier II.

Maximum speed, design draft, is 10 knots and cruise speed is 8 knots. Bollard pull (one engine) is 8.925 long tons. Range is 2,600 nautical miles

Principal particulars are:

Length Overall: 116 ft 6 in
Length Between Perpendiculars: 114 ft 8 in
Beam (Breadth): 48 ft 0 in
Depth (Molded): 12 ft 0 in
Design Draft: 9 ft 6 in
Design Displacement 463 long tons
Lightship Weight: 309 long tons

April 1, 2011