Service restored to Triangle route after morning crash into ferry dock piling

Washington State Ferries restored service on its Southworth-Vashon-Fauntleroy run on Thursday afternoon after a ferry crashed into a piling near the Fauntleroy dock in West Seattle.

No injuries were reported from passengers or Washington State Ferries crew aboard the Cathlamet, according to Washington State Ferries. Several vehicles were damaged from the impact, said Washington State Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling.

No information about how the crash occurred was immediately released. The boat's left side struck the outside of a piling at the south end of the Fauntleroy terminal, veering off course before coming in to dock. In addition to an ongoing WSF investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board and Coast Guard are also looking into the crash. As part of WSF’s procedures, crew members were tested for drugs and alcohol on Thursday.

"We just don't know exactly what transpired. Obviously, something went horribly wrong here and again we're just really lucky that nobody was seriously injured or worse," Sterling said at a Thursday afternoon press conference. He said there was no sign of mechanical failure aboard the ship.

WSF said the Cathlamet, which was traveling from Vashon Island to a dock in the West Seattle neighborhood during a 7:55 a.m. sailing, sustained “significant damage.”

“There is extensive damage running into the millions of dollars on this vessel,” Sterling said.

WSF restored service on its Triangle Route after moving the damaged Cathlamet out of the dock and toward the ferry maintenance facility on Bainbridge Island. The Kitsap, a backup boat in the WSF fleet, will take over service at Fauntleroy.

The piling, referred to as a dolphin, is a steel and concrete barrier near the dock that helps guide boats in, according to WSF.

Images shared on social media show the left top part of the vessel severely damaged. The boat was docked and by 9 a.m., the last vehicles had been brought off the boat.

The vessel involved in the crash, the 41-year-old Cathlamet, is 328 feet long and can carry up to 124 vehicles and 1,200 passengers. Walk-on ridership is low for this route, which is "probably a good thing," Sterling said. Repairs to the Cathlamet could take months to complete.

Thursday's incident was at least the second time the ferry has crashed into a dolphin, with the vessel landing hard and crashing into a dolphin in June 2007 when it was traveling the Mukilteo-Clinton route.

An investigation into that incident found the ferry captain did not follow procedures when slowing the vessel as it was coming into the dock. The captain, who blamed equipment failure for the incident, was terminated.

Damage to the dolphin, wing wall and Cathlamet was estimated to slightly exceed $1 million in the June 2007 incident, according to documents filed in the arbitration between WSF and the union representing the captain. The arbitrator ruled that WSF had just cause to dismiss the captain following the incident.

Other crashes and hard landings in recent history include the Yakima running into the then-new breakwater at the Bremerton marina in 2008. In that incident, the captain of the Yakima, pulling into Bremerton at 1:50 a.m., didn't get a good angle entering the slip, he reported. When he backed up for another try, the ferry was caught by a strong gust and pushed north about 400 feet against the breakwater. The scraping against the concrete structure caused three cracks in the vessel's hull, and the ferry ended up taking on water. Nobody was injured. The fix took several months and cost $460,000.

As WSF responded to the incident on Thursday, the Issaquah boat provided service between Vashon and Southworth to load vehicles to move as much traffic as possible, according to WSF. Riders from Vashon needing to get to the mainland had to switch to WSF’s Point Defiance/Tahlequah route, and WSF reported on Thursday afternoon that there was an estimated three-hour wait for drivers departing the Point Defiance terminal.

"Passengers should prepare for significant waits and are encouraged to take alternate routes if they still need to travel," WSF said in a social media update.

The Southworth-Vashon-Fauntleroy route, known as the Triangle Route, typically runs with three vessels. It has been running with two vessels for most of the pandemic, as Washington State Ferries struggles with staffing and keeping vessels in working mechanical order.

Money for four new hybrid-electric class ferries was recently secured under the Move Ahead Washington transportation funding package approved in the Legislative session earlier this year. In June, WSF announced that plans for Washington-based shipbuilder Vigor had broken down and that the state agency would use a competitive bidding process to find a company to construct the ferries.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Service restored to Triangle route after morning crash into ferry dock piling