In rebuttal to the statement made by Senator Mary Margret Haugen in the Whidbey News-Times article dated April 19, titled “Ferry bidding delayed again.” That statement reads as follows:

“A Steilacoom II-type vessel can operate other routes in addition to the Port Townsend run. In a town hall meeting Wednesday night, Haugen said it particularly could operate well on a route in Tacoma currently served by the Rhododendron, which is approximately 50 years old.”

I want to point out that the community of Vashon-Maury Island is absolutely opposed to the Steilacoom II clone. We have sent letter after letter to Washington State Ferries, the governor, and the legislators telling them that. None of them seem to be listening to facts. The construction of this vessel will cost the taxpayers not just the initial construction costs but the ongoing maintenance for the next 60 years. Some have estimated that to be $100 million, or more.

The “clone” is too small to be of any consequence to any current independent route in the WSF system. At best it holds two vehicles more than the Rhododendron. By the way the Rhododendron is now over 60 years old. This is the age which the Legislature has mandated vessel retirement. When you add commercial vehicles into the mix that capacity is further restricted. The clone has a lower freeboard which means that there will be greater hours of restricted loading for low tides. This not only affects commercial vehicles but any trailer, motorhome or car with low ground clearance.

The clone would become the slowest vessel in the fleet which means it cannot work with any other vessel to maintain a schedule. One of the reasons the smaller Hiyu is on the inter-island route is that the “larger” Rhododendron is too slow to keep the schedule, and the side support poles interfere with loading. To run at its current speed it must drive its engines to near 95 percent which accelerates its maintenance tremendously. This is why Pierce County has two similar vessels, so one can be in maintenance while the other operates.

The Vashon to Tacoma route currently has overloads much of the time. We already need a larger capacity on that route. In fact the Port Townsend to Keystone route carries less vehicles and passengers than any single route structure in WSF. The difference between the two is that Vashon/Tacoma is fairly steady and the Port Townsend/Keystone has a big summer surge.

The only other possible place for the clone is after the split up of the triangle route on the north end of Vashon. The Vashon/Southworth leg of the triangle is the only “route” that carries less traffic than Port Townsend/Keystone. It however has a large commercial truck usage which would make the clone unsuitable there too.

There are, or were, alternatives to building this wasteful clone. Time is running out on one of those alternatives. So far there does not seem to be any other viable vessels in the world fleet.

Gregory J. Beardsley, Port Engineer, SS Virginia V, co-chair Vashon Ferry Advisory Committee.