PORT TOWNSEND — The MV Salish will begin sailing the route between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island in July, the state ferries system said.
The announcement caps the victory felt on both sides of Admiralty Inlet when the state Legislature kept the boat in place on the route after Washington State Ferries recommended moving it elsewhere and leaving the Port Townsend-Coupeville route with only one ferry.
When the Salish sails, the route will return to two-boat service for the first time since the Steel Electrics were retired just before Thanksgiving in 2007.
“We are thrilled to return to a level of service that we haven’t had for four years and are grateful that the Legislature did the right thing to keep it in place,” said Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval.
However, both boats will operate in tandem for only the summer and spring seasons and part of the fall, Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons said.
One will be taken off the route in October or November during the winter to be used as backup for other boats in the system needing repair and then returned to the Port Townsend-Coupeville route sometime in the spring.
Sea trials for the new boat are scheduled to begin in May, Marta Coursey, state ferries spokeswoman, told Timmons and city Marketing Director Christina Pivarnik during a meeting in Port Townsend on Monday.
The vessel is expected to begin sailing the route in July, but the exact date is uncertain, Timmons said.
“We would like to see this in service for the July Fourth weekend, but the ferry system can’t commit to an exact date,” he said.
“It depends what they find in the sea trials.”
The Salish, a 64-vehicle ferry, is the second of three Kwa-di Tabil Class boats contracted by the state at a cost of $213.2 million to be built by Todd Shipyards in Seattle.
The first, the MV Chetzemoka, began service on the Port Townsend-Coupeville run in November while the third, the Kennewick — destined for the Point Defiance-to-Tahlequah route once it enters service sometime this winter — is now under construction.
The Chetzemoka was slated to go into service in August but was delayed until November because of problems with the fixed-pitch propeller.
The new ferry will have a variable-pitch propeller, which will make it easier to maneuver, the state ferries system said.
Timmons said the Chetzemoka was built with a fixed propeller because to do otherwise would have delayed delivery for six months, “and they wanted to get it into service as soon as possible.”
The Salish’s inaugural sail will be less of an event than that for the Chetzemoka, which featured the governor and other dignitaries, but it will still be tied to whatever is happening in Port Townsend at the time, Timmons said.
He said the state ferries system will provide two or three weeks’ notice of the date of first sailing.
Also discussed Monday was a plan to make discounted display advertising on the boats available to local businesses in order to draw traffic to their stores.
The Salish’s presence on the Port Townsend-Keystone route was thrown into doubt in the fall when its relocation to another route was suggested as a cost-cutting measure.
At that time, state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, and state Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, fought to keep the boat on the route.
The boat’s presence on the route was included in both the Senate and House transportation budgets released in March.
Timmons said Haugen “did a terrific job” in making sure the Salish stayed in place and that this would make a big difference to Port Townsend businesses, which depend on tourism.
The Steel Electric ferries, which had provided two-boat service on the route for many years, were suddenly retired when they were determined to be unsafe.
The state ferries system leased the Steilacoom II from Pierce County to operate as the only boat on the route until the Chetzemoka, the first boat built by the state in at least a decade, took it over.
In March, Sandoval said the state ferries system had considered discontinuing the route entirely and that city officials felt lucky to get one new boat.
Sandoval said that after Port Townsend lobbied tirelessly for the Chetzemoka, efforts on behalf of the Salish were left to Haugen and the Whidbey Island Ferry Board.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie. bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.