When will BC Ferries’ oldest vessels be replaced?

It’s getting to be a busy time for travellers and BC Ferries has announced it is adding more than 150 extra holiday sailings on its major routes, starting next week.

After dealing with relatively frequent cancellations and delays over the past year, due to everything from staffing issues to weather to mechanical issues, CityNews has heard from passengers commenting on the reliability of the service, especially when it comes to the fleet’s oldest ferries.

Recently, BC Ferries deferred the replacement of its four oldest major vessels — some of the C-Class ferries built in the 1960s, ’70s. and ’80s, such as the Queen of Alberni and Queen of Cowichan.

In its most recent four-year plan, released for public comment in October, the ferry corporation says after detailed assessments of their current condition, it was determined the vessels could be given five-year life extensions beyond their original planned retirement dates, which were supposed to start as early as 2023.

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Retired naval architect Dan McGreer, an adjunct professor of naval design at the University of British Columbia, believes it is reasonable to expect these older ferries to keep operating for now.

“These ferries, they get regularly inspected. There’s a major inspection of them by the classification society every five years. They review the status of the ship, all the equipment on board, and how the structure is lasting. One of the aging issues you have to worry about is corrosion — rusting — so they look at the state of the paint and the steelwork and make sure it is in good shape,” McGreer tells CityNews.

“BC Ferries has done some fairly significant refits of the C-Class vessels. They did a mid-life refit in the 2000 to 2010 timeframe, and they have also done what they call a three-quarter life refit on some of the vessels as well.”

He feels a five-year extension is feasible, even with the ships surpassing 50 or even 60 years of service.

“It is reasonable for ferries. Large vessels, they talk typically of a 25-to-30-year lifetime, but those vessels are going to sea in heavy sea conditions with rough waves and everything like that. These ferries operate in much less difficult sea conditions, so they do last longer. Particularly when they do maintenance on them on a regular basis, then they can expect to last longer,” he explained.

McGreer compares it to an aging car — you can get it to last a long time if you do the maintenance.

“Washington State Ferries actually has some ferries that have lasted longer. There’s one I checked the other day; it has been 60 years now. They do last, but they need regular maintenance and to be inspected on a regular basis.”

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However, McGreer — who worked in the industry for more than 40 years, including on a number of BC Ferries projects — agrees it can get to the point where it becomes too expensive to maintain an older ferry.

“I think BC Ferries recognizes that they do need to be replaced, and that is why they have a plan to replace them. They are currently designing new vessels to replace them. Those vessels, they plan to have much lower greenhouse gas emissions and much lower noise — or underwater radiated noise — which affects the whales. They need to be replaced; I would agree with that.”

In the meantime, McGreer suggests, there is no hard limit to the life of a ferry if you spend enough money and effort maintaining it.

“I guess that’s the trick. There’s no real limit. It all depends on the results of the inspections. They do a detailed inspection to see the status of all the components, all the systems onboard, and the steel. It can always be repaired. It just becomes expensive, and more and more maintenance is required as the asset gets older.”

According to BC Ferries, it plans to replace what it calls six “legacy vessels” — the Queens of New Westminster, Surrey, Oak Bay, and others — with seven standardized, larger, more efficient new ferries within the next 10 years, injecting more capacity on the major routes.

This is still in the design phase with the first new major vessel currently scheduled to go into service in 2029. BC Ferries’ Capital and Master Fleet plans include investments to replace 13 vessels over the next 14 years.