Sold! Washington State Ferries unloads the Elwha for $100K to Everett buyer
The Elwha, a decommissioned state ferry, was on the move Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 to its now home in Everett. Washington State Ferries sold the Elwha, which was retired in 2020, to Everett Ship Repair. (Courtesy of Washington State Ferries)
Washington State Ferries completed the sale of the Elwha on Thursday, four months after a deal with a different buyer sank.
Everett Ship Repair bought the retired passenger ferry for $100,000 and had it tugged to its shipyard Thursday morning from the state's Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island. The plan is to convert the ferry into a floating office and warehouse space, according to Washington State Ferries.
'We're excited to see one of our ferries with so much history and memories for millions of passengers is being repurposed locally,' Steve Nevey, assistant secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation in charge of ferries, said in a statement. 'I'm confident it's in good hands with a local shipyard.'
The Elwha, with capacity for 144 cars, was one of four Super-class ferries built in the mid-1960s. It primarily operated on the route between Anacortes, Friday Harbor and Sidney, British Columbia before being retired on April 8, 2020. Two Super-class ferries, Kaleetan and Yakima, are still in service.
Meanwhile, Washington State Ferries is still trying to sell two remaining retired boats, Klahowya and Hyak, to free up dock space at its Eagle Harbor facility.
Last year, state ferry officials said they had an agreement to sell the Elwha and Klahowya for $100,000 each to a person who planned to tow them to Ecuador to be scrapped. But on Sept. 5 they announced the deal was off when the buyer, Nelson Armas, failed to haul them away due to malfunctioning equipment on the tugboat he planned to use.
A few days later came reports that Armas' four hired workers on the tugboat — who hailed from Columbia, Panama and Peru — had been mistreated and underpaid.
At the time, Nevey said it was in the 'best interest' of the state to sever ties due to his multiple failures to meet contractual obligations and deadlines.
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