Ferries: Why we should float our own boats
A former Washington ferry inspector says there are real benefits to buying locally when it comes to state ferries. That said, the system could be improved.
In all the discussion about the state of the Washington State Ferries, one thing in short supply is the voice of those who have worked in the ferry system and the maritime industry. And I don't mean the higher level managers, but rather the voices of those who actually do the work of designing, building, maintaining and operating the boats and the docks. Here are a few personal reflections on the current state of the ferry system based upon my own experience as an outside machinist and a planner at Todd Shipyards and as a vessel construction inspector for the ferry system from 1990 until 2006.
Consider the question of whether ferry new construction should be opened up to out of state bidders. There are solid reasons why continuing to build ferries in Washington makes sense.
The direct and indirect jobs created by the projects are hugely important. Beside the immediate benefit of providing employment, there is a continuing benefit in that major projects typically come with a training program requirement. That is no small thing in the shipyard business with its aging workforce. The continuing need to attract, train and maintain a workforce is bolstered by ferry construction projects.
The indirect jobs created are many and varied. During the construction of the Jumbo Mark II class of boats (the Tacoma, Wenatchee, and Puyallup), I traveled from shop to shop in the Puget Sound area to inspect any number of items that went into the new boats. From machine shops in South Park to a manufacturer in Marysville that built the seats and benches for the passenger cabins, the number of indirect jobs and work for small businesses was staggering. There are propeller shops on Lake Union and in Ballard, and local suppliers of steel and nuts and bolts that all benefit. Deck machinery was manufactured in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood and zincs that protect the hulls were made locally too.
Experience gained and lessons learned during local construction have an ongoing benefit when it comes to maintaining and repairing these vessels. Take one example: the rudders of the Mark II boats. There are, in my opinion, design flaws in those rudder systems that make for an unnecessarily complicated disassembly procedure when taking them apart for inspection or repair. When we had to take the first one apart at Todd a couple of years after construction, we were fortunate to have some of the same outside machinists who built the boats in the first place on hand for the disassembly. Without their familiarity with the system this could easily have been a process that was longer and costlier. When the disassembled rudder and rudder stock showed damage from corrosion caused by seawater getting into the fit area between stock and rudder blade, it was one of these skilled mechanics who offered up a quick, relatively inexpensive and very effective fix.
These projects also require contract administration. These tasks range from inspections of work to negotiation of change orders to authorization of payments to design support. These are clearly in the state’s and taxpayers’ interest. Add to contract administration the need for adequate crew training prior to delivery of the vessels. These ships are complex machines and training is an absolute necessity for their safe and efficient operation. Building them out of state adds significantly to the cost of these administrative and training functions. Travel, housing and per diem expenses are not a big issue when the boats are built locally.
There is also some inherent risk and added cost involved when boats are built out of state when it comes time to deliver. It is a long trip from the Gulf coast to Puget Sound and the fuel and crew time is not free. And, while it is true that thousands of vessels make safe long distance voyages every year, occasionally they don’t. When the Hyak, the lead ship of the Super Class ferries was delivered from a yard in San Diego in the 1960s, it encountered rough weather and sustained significant damage. Some folks, familiar with the vessel which is still in service, maintain that ongoing alignment and bearing wear of the propeller shaft on one end is attributable to that delivery damage.
There are, however, ways in which both the ferry system and the shipyard can work smarter and more efficiently and reduce cost to the taxpayers. First, building only one of any class of vessel makes little sense. A one-off design must by definition absorb all costs of design and construction, whereas building even two, or better yet three or more vessels, spreads fixed costs over multiple vessels achieving some economy of scale and reducing the unit price. During construction of the three Mark II boats the lessons learned on the first one were rolled into the second and third. The rudder example above illustrates the point. Once the challenges of assembling the system were learned, the same task went much easier and was less expensive on the follow-on boats.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 7:26 a.m. inappropriate
So I was just about to write this whole long comment about why I think this article is wrong. So I logged in to my account and saw that I have only written one other comment posted, and it was about this same topic, so I saved time and reprinted below:
Very little has been made of this policy of not allowing boats to be built out of state, and it is a real shame. Perhaps the state could learn a bit about free markets: if you artificially restrict the market (to, umm, one company), the price will go up.
I understand the state's claim that if they allow bids from other companies that jobs will go away, so here's a good solution: call up Oregon and California: create a compact with those two states that allows shipmakers from the three states to compete in all three states. That way, you get the best of both worlds -- keeping West coast jobs while creating competition.
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 8:32 a.m. inappropriate
The price our Todd shipyards/Martinac/Nichols monopoloy is charging for one dinky 65 car ferry is over $1 million per vehicle space, the most expensive ferry ever built on the planet per vehicle space. And that price has not yet been inflated by overruns, change orders, delays, WSF management, and more.
I'm not interested in all these lame excuses and rationales, trying to explain how over $1 million per vehicle space for a ferry is somehow, sort of OK and a reasonable price. Its not OK, and its killing the ferry system and its riders.
There is a bottom line in business and life, and the bottom line is expressed as a price and performance. WSF is failing on both counts. Our ferry acquisition system is badly broken
A more reasonable price, in line with recent nationwide ferry pricing is about $350,000 per vehicle space for a car ferry.
We're being robbed by paying 3 times as much as we should for our car ferries.
This is not a ferry Todd is building anymore, its a trough of taxpayer cash, that is towed around Puget Sound and shared by three shipyards that seem to have colluded to submit a single bid.
WSF is not managed as ferry system for the benefit of the traveling public, WSF is managed as a jobs program for the benefit of the workers.
Nationwide competition is long overdue for WSF ferries. Time to cut through all the crap, bid our ships nationwide, and get some ferries built.
Best, Nels Sultan
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 1:19 p.m. inappropriate
I would like to hear the authors take on what our neighbor to the north is doing. While we care 25 million folks or so on 10 routes, with 500 sailings a day, BC Ferries has added six new ships including 2 of the largest double ended ships in the world, the S class (up to 2,100 peole and 470 vehicles at 23 knots.
Over the next 15 years, they are plannign to replace 26 vessels. The most recent addition is enroute as you read this heading from FSG Shipyards in Flensburg Germany toward the Panama Canal. The last ship they took delivery of, the "Northern Expedition is over 480 feet long, holds 130 vehicles and 600 passengers. OK, so the 55 Staterooms would be a hard sell, but if we had worked together with BC Ferries, rather than inventing anew, would there not have been an economy of scale? Sharing DESIGN, for example?
I realize the Jones act and others require a US Built Hull, but for gosh sakes, these folks are just a few hours up the road, and deal with a far more protectionist and unionized organization, and are developing a state of the art fleet. I would think at first glance, there would could be some shared knowledge, and reduced costs.
We / Cap. Peabody inherited a lot of the original fleet. Some Cdn designs, like duel deck loading at docks, are next to impossible to accomplish with our system, but there MUST be more commonalities than differences, and I would hope those would be explored.
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 1:32 p.m. inappropriate
Two words explain why the ferry fleet is in such desperate condition: Light Rail. It's sucking the lifeblood out of our entire transportation system.
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 10:30 p.m. inappropriate
Hacknflack,
BCF have made plenty of very costly mistakes over the years. The 3 Pacificats (high spd catamarans) were a financial disaster for the taxpayers, built in 1999 at cost I believe over C$450 Mil and have sat idle for years, as were not designed well for local waters. The 3 new Flensburger vsls Ive read suffer from very high consumption and prop cavitation (not fully submerged) due to design mistakes by someone.
The 2 Spirits Ive passed many times in my own boat and they do not operate at 23knots; it's more like 18-19k. Theyre good ships and I believe have been very reliable.
You say above that Capt Peabody inherited a lot of the original fleet. Not true - he created (built up) the original Black Ball fleet, didnt inherit anything. He sold it to WA state in 1953 (Ive been riding the ferries since 1943). Dual deck loading was never adapted by WSF, probably because the high volume runs are considerably shorter than in BC and historically hasnt justified the extra cost.
If you dug into it you'd find there arent many commonalities. Jones Act does not just require US-built hulls, but also engines, gears and almost all parts. WSF have had the best longtime experience with EMD and GE engines (widely used on American railroads), BCF have none; they instead have used mostly British and more recently German engines.
There's also an enormous difference in taxes that BC residents pay compared to here. I dont know their operating costs, but suspect BCF arent exactly a model of efficiency (not that WSF are, and it'd be interesting to know which is worse)
Posted Mon, Feb 16, 9:57 a.m. inappropriate
Thank you Leebon for your informative updates... we rarely get news of BC Ferries until one sinks... (and sorry to all about the typos...)
I used the wrong word when I said inherited... What was meant was that Capt. Peabody did not build a lot of ships from scratch. As I recall, he purchased a lot of used ships from the old Southern Pacific SF Bay fleet, some from the east coast, and modified a number of multi deck into auto carry flat decks. He was a saavy operator from what I read of the man. My grandparents remembered when he added a number of old Southern Pacific vessels.... My greatgrandparents lived in Bremerton in the 30's and 40's... My dad Loved the old Kalakala, which was an SP ship named the Peralta that burned to the hull. Capt. Peabody then rebuilt the superstructure in that unique "Silver Slug" motief... As kids, Dad would miss a ship sailing just to make sure we got to sail on her.
Point being, he was able to build the fleet early on using used vessels, and even then that would have proven a significant cost savings.
The hulls of the new mid sized ships that BC ferries has purchased seem to be well done... (Re, the BCF Spirits reduced speeds... it seems just about every ship operator has been running at reduced speeds to gain fuel efficiency...) My thought was could there be ANY savings to purchasing the design, then built it here?
And again, thanks for the great feedback!
Posted Mon, Feb 16, 1:12 p.m. inappropriate
Thanks to all for the comments on the article. There are 3 main points I am trying to make: There is a real benefit to building ferries locally; there are ways to improve both WSF and local shipyards in order to control cost; and that this is only one local example of a nation wide infrastructure crisis.
This morning's P.I. has an article on the state of the ferries and two pending bills in the legislature that deal with the issue of building locally and the issue of WSF's inhouse design functions and use of outside consultants. For a look at some of the points I try to make about local benefit see the February 9, 2007 issue of the Vineyard Gazette Online for an informative piece on the delivery of the Island Home ferry from the Gulf Coast yard to Massachusetts. Among other things, the item speaks to the construction delays caused by hurricaine damage at the yard, and the range of issues and costs to be considered when building so far from home. "Also on board were 27 employees of VT Halter Marine whose expertise covered a wide span of the vessel's functions". Those folks don't ride the boat to its home for free and they don't stay at the ferry's home port for free and they don't travel back home for free. And when they do go home they take that expertise back with them. Building locally does have advantages.
As to how WSF can control costs better, an accelerated construction schedule, as is apparently the case now adds enormously to cost. WSF can improve the function of the Vessel Engineering Department and WSF can operate boats in better ways. For an intelligent discussion of the last point, check out recent posts on the BitterEnd blog about reducing vessel speed during non-commute hours to save significant money on fuel costs.
On the subject of B.C. ferries, I would probably agree with much of what "leebon" has to say above, particularly about the experience with the catamaran vessels. That said, there has been a real interconnection between Washington State and B.C. when it comes to ferries. Currently, all direct ferry connections (Port Angeles, Seattle, Anacortes and Bellingham) are Washington State operators. A number of B.C. ferries were designed by the Philip Spaulding outfit of Seattle (designers of the Jumbo Class). The Jumbo Mark II Class had a lot of B.C. involvement, from the Canadians on the Todd management team itself to the purchase of such equipment as rescue boats and davits (British made, but supplied via Canada). Their are real interconnections that have historically benefited both sides.
But this remains a local example of a national problem and there is a national interest in maintaining the skills and abilities of local ship building and repair as a part of a rational big picture approach.