PORT TOWNSEND — Gov. Chris Gregoire and her husband, Mike Gregoire, joined Scott Lundh’s fourth-graders, parents, Quileute tribal leaders and others Thursday for a celebration of the class’ winning name for a new classification of state ferries — Kwa-di Tabil.

The name means “little boat” in the Quileute language and is pronounced kwah DEE tah bale, leaders of the LaPush-based tribe said.

August launch

The first of two 64-car ferries in the new classification will be launched in late August, with the second scheduled to go into service in summer 2011.

Gregoire, who launched the contest last year that also challenged competing fourth-graders in Chimacum and Coupeville to come up with a name, swung through Port Townsend on Thursday to visit Blue Heron Middle School and honor fourth-grader Rose Dunlap, who came up with the name that her classmates agreed to use from among 15 total names.

She is the daughter of Crissy and Piper Dunlap of Port Townsend.

“This is pretty special,” Gregoire told the fourth-graders. “Little boat is right. This is the smaller boat of the fleet.”

Telling the class that the last ferry classification 12 years ago was the 202-car Jumbo Mark II, Gregoire said to giggles: “How boring is that?”

The ferry will be nearly the length of a football field, the governor said, “so when we say little boat, we don’t mean a dinghy.”

She said the new 64-car ferries were replacing 60-year-old ferries in the state’s aging fleet.

Comedic touch

Lundh added a touch of comedy to the celebration, presenting the governor with a Zotz candy necklace and Northwest goodies such as CB Nuts and cookies, locally made soap and a school sweatshirt.

The students each read poems to the governor they wrote for the occasion, and the poems were compiled in a book that Lundh presented to the governor.

Quileute Tribal Chairwoman Anna Counsell-Geyer and tribal elder Lela Mae Morganroth, who approved the Kwa-di Tabil name with the Tribal Council, said the tribe was honored that the new ferries would be named in their native tongue.

Quileute blessing

Morganroth, who blessed the class in her native language, later sang and drummed a song with Counsell-Geyer before a Blue Heron Middle School assembly in the school gym, where they asked Rose Dunlap to join them presenting her with gifts.

“The name pays respect to our culture, to the Quileute culture,” Counsell-Geyer said.

“You have done a wonderful, beautiful thing,” Morganroth told the class, later telling the assembly of students that the naming honored the tribe.

In her own language, Morganroth spoke to the students, interpreting it to say she was “thanking the little boat for taking the cars across the water.”

Impact on region

Blue Heron Principal Mark Decker told the students that the ferries would have a “huge” impact on the region that depends on them for tourism and commerce.

Besides 64 cars, the two new ferries will carry up to 200 passengers when completed and launched, one scheduled to sail on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in August and a second in summer 2011.

The first of the three Kwa-di Tabil-class ferries has been named Chetzemoka for a Klallam tribal chief after a big push by the Jefferson County Historical Society that was supported by the Blyn-based James-town S’Klallam Tribal Council and Les Prince, a direct descendant of Chetzemoka.

Panel of judges

The ferry classification name panel of judges included the governor’s husband, Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval, state Department of Transportation Chief of Staff Steve Reinmuth, Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard, and Washington State Ferries Port Capt. Bill Michael.

During the assembly, Gregoire urged Blue Heron students to work hard to get an education.

“I got a lot of education and there was no one to stop me,” she said, adding she studied to become a lawyer, which led her to become state attorney general and then governor in 2004, re-elected in 2008.

“There is nothing you can’t do with a good education,” Gregoire said.

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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.