Two Washington State Ferries Vessels Sold for Scrap
Washington State Ferries announced it has sold a pair of retired vessels for recycling in Ecuador.
Sold for $100,000 apiece, the ferries Elwha and Klahowya have been acquired by Nelson Armas, who has gained approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) to transport the out-of-service vessels by tow for recycling at a steel mill facility in Ecuador.
WSF described the facility as "clean" and "green" and noted that both retired ferries are certified to be free of hazardous materials.
A Western Towboat Co. tug, 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, August 19. Then the vessels will connect with the voyage towing tugboat Wycliffe, which will take them out of the Puget Sound.
“After safely serving our customers for more than five decades each, the sale of these two retired ferries will free up our docking space so we can focus vessel maintenance needs on our current fleet,” said Steve Nevey, Assistant Secretary at WSF, a division of the Washington State Department of Transportation. “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 sale of a third decommissioned vessel, Hyak, is pending, WSF said.
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.
