MV Salish is a Kwa-di Tabil class ferry built at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, Washington for the Washington State Ferries

Washington State Ferries

Washington State Ferries is a passenger and automobile ferry service owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation that serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. It is the most used ferry system in the world and the largest passenger and automobile...

. It was scheduled to start on the Port Townsend-Coupeville

Coupéville

Coupéville is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France....

 (Keystone

Keystone, Island County, Washington

Keystone is a small unincorporated community on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, in the northwestern United States. It is near the Keystone Ferry Landing, a dock for the Washington State Ferries route to Port Townsend that provides a maritime link for State Route 20 across Admiralty Inlet...

).

Design

The Salishs design is based on that of the a ferry that is owned by The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority

The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority

The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, referred to coloquially as The Steamship Authority or simply the SSA, is the statutory regulatory body for all ferry operations to and from the Islands from the Massachusetts mainland, as well as being an operator of ferry service...

. The particular class has had some mechanical issues, causing some in Washington to question the use of the design.

The Salish shares the design of its sister, the . The design is somewhat unique for a Washington State Ferry, as the vessel has two elevators, multiple stair wells, and a smoke stack on the same side of the ferry, instead of being symmetrical, aside from having a single elevator on one side of a typical Washington State Ferry. This oddity in design, has given the vessels a pronounced 1 degree list, causing some to call the vessels 'Eileen' (I Lean). When the boat is loaded, the list is not noticeable. The Kwa-di Tabils are also the first "smaller scale" vessel to allow access to the "Texas Deck", the area on top of the vessel between pilot houses. Only the Super Class, Jumbo Class, and Jumbo Mark II Class ferries allow such access. The Kwa-di Tabils are also the first vessel in the Washington State Ferries fleet to have a mezzanine deck, between the main passenger cabin and the car deck, which on one side is primarily configured to hold bicycles (instead of them being relegated to the car deck), and the other simply for passengers. These mezzanine decks are not connected, except via the main passenger cabin, allowing for a 15ft 10in clearance in the center of the vessel.

External links

• 64carferries