Two retired WSF ferries headed to Ecuador for recycling
Written by Nick Blenkey
One of the retired WSF ferries sold for recycling, M/V Klahowya , seen at Vashon Heights, north tip of Vashon Island, in 2013 [Photo: Joe Mabel/CC BY-SA 3.0]
Washington State Ferries (WSF) reports that two vessels that each spent more than 50 years as part of its fleet are heading to South America. It has entered into purchase and sales agreements with Nelson Armas of Ecuador for the retired WSF ferries Elwha and Klahowya. The sale price was $100,000 each and, with approval from MARAD, the new owner plans to tow the two to Ecuador for recycling at a clean, green steel mill facility. Both are certified to be free of hazardous materials.
A small Western Towboat Co. tug, the Wycliffe, supplied by the new owner, will take Elwha and Klahowya out of Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island, where they are currently docked, starting at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 19. Then the two retired WSF ferries will connect with the voyage towing tugboat Wycliffe, which will take them out of the Puget Sound.
Track Wycliffe’s progress in real time using MarineTraffic. HERE
The sale of a third decommissioned vessel, Hyak, is pending. WSF says that more information will be provided when that transaction is finalized.
“After safely serving our customers for more than five decades each, the sale of these two retired WSF ferries will free up our docking space so we can focus vessel maintenance needs on our current fleet,” said WSF assistant secretary Steve Nevey. “In addition, any time we needed to move these decommissioned boats to allow for vessel or terminal maintenance, there was a cost for a tugboat, and we needed a tow captain on board, taking away a crewmember from working on one of our routes.”
The 144-car Elwha and Hyak are two of four Super-class ferries built in the mid-1960s. Elwha mainly served the Anacortes/Friday Harbor/Sidney, British Columbia route before being retired on April 8, 2020. Hyak, which was decommissioned on June 30, 2019, was primarily used on the Seattle/Bremerton route and is now docked at Kingston terminal. The final two Super-class ferries, Kaleetan and Yakima, are still in service.
Built in 1958, the 87-car Evergreen State-class Klahowya mainly served the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route. It moved to the San Juan Islands interisland run in 2014. When Klahowya was decommissioned on July 1, 2017, sister ship Tillikum replaced it on the route.
