New chapter for Oscar B. story
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Rick Nelson
Pictured Friday, the ferry Oscar B. returned to service last Thursday after a Wahkiakum County mechanic replaced faulty shaft sleeves. The vessel was out of service for almost two months to upgrade the cooling system for engine generators. In the initial design, water intakes clogged with debris in last December's high water. The boat was drydocked, and workers installed a new, self-contained keel cooling system.
The year-old ferry Oscar B. is back in service again, but the saga of its mechanical troubles is far from over.
During a high river, debris plugged the intake for the water cooling system for the engine generators, and the ferry was tied up to find a mechanical solution. Consulting engineers came up with two solutions, and the ferry ended up in a Vancouver shipyard where workers installed a self-contained cooling system along the keel.
The ferry went out of service December 10 and was supposed to resume service January 26, but on the cruise from the shipyard to Puget Island, the crew heard a strange engine noise and discovered problems with shaft seals.
Replacement seals were ordered, one coming from England and the other from Louisiana. County mechanics installed them February 4, and service resumed that evening.
County Commissioner Dan Cothren said Tuesday that he heard complaints from citizens that the county was going to let the affair fade away.
Not so, he said; the county is going to seek compensation for the repairs.
"We're working on stuff and who we're going to go after," he said. "We're doing our job. The prosecuting attorney has been working on this.
"My feeling: It should have been done right the first time. They build boats all the time."
"It's complicated; it's going to take a long time," Commissioner Blair Brady added. "There was a design flaw."
The boat's design came from an experienced marine engineering firm. State and county engineers reviewed the design. The shipyard built the boat to meet the design.
Still, the keel coolers cost around $120,000, Brady said.
The new seals were $2,300 a set. The county mechanic installed two and kept two others on hand for possible future use.
While the prosecuting attorney is reviewing legal remedies, Public Works Director Chuck Beyer has been consulting with the officials in the state Department of Transportation who were involved in the process. Perhaps there will be some funding relief there, Brady said.
Reader Comments(1)
sirboo writes:
This has been quite the fiasco and there is lots of finger pointing going on. Government is good at spending our money with little oversight or accountability. Maybe it is time to consider putting new people into these decision making positions.
02/11/2016, 4:32 am