MV Hiyu

The MV Hiyu is a ferry boat operated by Washington State Ferries. It is currently the smallest ferry in the fleet, with a capacity of 34 cars and 200 passengers, and a length of 162 feet (49 m).^[1]

The Hiyu was originally built in 1967 by Gunderson Brothers in Portland, Oregon to replace the aging wooden ferry MV Skansonia on the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route, which had a capacity of 32 cars at the time and a clearance of 11 feet (3.4 m) on her car deck. The Hiyu was slightly bigger and faster than her predecessor, but most importantly, she had a higher clearance in her two center lanes, allowing trucks to reach Vashon Island without having to drive to Fauntleroy.^[3]

The Hiyu worked the short route between Vashon Island and Tacoma until the late-1980s. By then, she could no longer handle the increased traffic on the route and was replaced with the 55-car MV Olympic.^[3][4]

Washington State Ferries reassigned her to the San Juan Islands where she served as the inter-island boat, serving San Juan Island, Orcas Island, Shaw Island and Lopez Island. By the late-1990s, the Hiyu's small size became an issue once again on the San Juan inter-island route, and she was replaced by a larger vessel, the MV Nisqually.^[3]

She was mothballed for over 10 years at Washington State Ferries' maintenance facility in Eagle Harbor. During that period, she was mainly used as a WSF training vessel. She was also used for filming some movies and television commercials, including a commercial for the Seattle Seahawks football team in 1999. Occasionally, she was contracted out for service on the Steilacoom-Anderson Island ferry route when the MV Christine Anderson needed emergency repairs.^[3]

During this time, WSF considered selling this ferry. The Washington State Department of Corrections was interested in using her for service to their prison on McNeil Island. There were also plans to sell her to Whatcom County for them to use at Lummi Island or for ferry service between Blaine and Point Roberts. In the end, nothing came of the plans to sell the Hiyu.^[3]

In June 2007, Washington State Ferries put the Hiyu back in service once again between Point Defiance and Tahlequah when the MV Rhododendron encountered rudder problems. At the time, Hiyu was the only other ferry available to cover for the Rhody.^[1]

On November 20, 2007, the four Steel Electric-class ferries were removed from service, leaving Hiyu as the only back-up ferry in the fleet. Since then, she has continued to serve as a back-up ferry, but cannot provide enough capacity on any of WSF's routes. She also cannot be made ADA-accessible. In the governor's proposed budget for 2009, the Hiyu was slated to be permanently assigned to the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route to allow for the Rhododendron's retirement. The legislature did not approve this proposal, so the Rhododendron remained in service until 2012 when the 64-car MV Chetzemoka replaced her.^[1]

The Hiyu proved useful in December 2012 when three ferries, the Walla Walla, Sealth and Klahowya, were taken out of service and the Hiyu was put on the Vashon-Southworth-Fauntelroy run for six days while repairs were made.

On November 25, 2013, the local TV station KING 5 reported that, since January 2012, WSF had spent $710,000 keeping engineers on the boat almost every day, but that it was only in service for eight days during that time. The head of WSF, David Moseley, said that the expense was minimal, amounting to less than one percent of the total cost of labor for engineers.^[5]

As of December 2013, WSF is building two new 144-car Olympic-class ferries which will enter service in 2014 and 2015. One of them will allow WSF to have a more adequate backup ferry.^[6] The state is considering selling the Hiyu in 2014.^[5]

After a year without service, the Hiyu was put back to work on the San Juan Interisland route to cover for the Evergreen State which had broken down. The Hiyu was in service during two days until the regular ferry was repaired.^[7]

In late July 2015, the Hiyu provided supplementary service on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route, which was otherwise running on a 2-boat schedule due to vessel moves elsewhere in the WSF systems. These moves were necessary to accommodate emergency repairs to the M/V Puyallup and M/V Elwha while maintaining reasonable service throughout the WSF system.

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