PORT TOWNSEND — The MV Coho, which has been in service for 55 years plying the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Victoria, is about two-thirds into its expected lifespan, a Black Ball Ferry Line official said Monday.
“We are set for at least the next 25 or 30 years,” Ryan Malane, Black Ball Ferry Line director of marketing told about 60 people at the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
“It has been extremely well maintained and has about 90 percent of its original shell,” he added.
The 341-foot 1,000-passenger ferry is the last operating vessel of the Black Ball Company, which was founded in 1816 and operated as a freight carrier across the Atlantic and in the Pacific Northwest.
It is now an integral part of the tourism community in the Pacific Northwest, Malane said.
“This is the last private operating ferry of its kind,” Malane said.
“No one else does what we do and it is a tremendous source of pride for us.”
In addition to serving the Port Angeles to Victoria vehicle and passenger route, the MV Coho also carried freight trucks between Seattle, Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Victoria.
This service ended in 1973, when the company decided to focus on the Port Angeles to Victoria route.
Since commencing operation in 1959, the MV Coho has transported more than 22 million passengers, and more than 6 million vehicles.
While the look and feel of the vessel is fundamentally unchanged since its launch, it has received regular upgrades. A solarium has been added, along with a sewage treatment facility, wi-fi, a new cafeteria, retail and new engines.
New upgrades will be added as needed, Malane said, but there is no modern feature passengers now are requesting.
Malane said that one change is the identification needed for crossing.
Currently a passport or passport card is required. When the vessel began service, unofficial identification such as an Elks Club membership card would suffice for customs, Malane said.
The ferry makes four trips daily between May and September on the 21-mile, 90-minute route.
During the rest of the year, the ferry offers two daily trips except between Oct. 9 and Oct. 12, when three trips are made to help vistors celebrate Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving.
The Coho was built under the auspices of Black Ball president Robert J. Acheson.
Malane said that the process was so stressful it may have contributed to his death four years after the launch of the vessel in 1963.
Ownership of the company passed to his widow, Lois Acheson. Upon her death, she willed the company to Oregon State University, which in turn sold it to a five person-partnership, including Malane, in 2009.
Representatives of the university remain on the board, Malane said.
The Coho will be out of operation from Jan. 4 to Feb. 29 to accommodate the construction of a new dock in Victoria, Malane said.
For more information go to www.cohoferry.com.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.