Whidbey Island welcomes new ferry Tokitae

CLINTON — To many people here on Whidbey Island, Washington state’s newest ferry is more than just a ship.

The Tokitae, as it’s called, is the fruit of their labor in a local shipyard. It promises riders slightly shorter ferry lines. And it’s a floating awareness campaign for endangered resident orca whales.

Hundreds of admirers stopped by the Tokitae, docked near the Clinton ferry terminal, for a welcoming ceremony on Sunday.

“Now we are breathing life into the steel and giving it a soul and making it a ship,” interim state ferries director Capt. George Capacci said.

Transportation officials and shipbuilders offered up applause lines to an audience gathered in the car deck. Members of the Swinomish Inidian Tribe and Samish Indian Nation performed blessings.

The Tokitae is scheduled to start sailing this summer, as part of the state’s 23-ferry fleet.

The $144 million ship was christened in March at Vigor Industrial in Seattle. While Vigor built the hull, much of the structure above deck took shape at Nichols Bros. Boat Builders in Freeland, a short drive from the Clinton ferry terminal.

Numerous other contractors had pieces of the job. All told, about 500 workers participated.

Walk up the steps from the Tokitae’s car deck, not yet reddened by rust or blackened by exhaust, and you start to notice differences from the current fleet.

The angle of the stairs is more gentle, making for an easier climb. The stairwell gives ample space for people to pass in either direction. As a fire-proofing measure, the corridor is walled off from the car decks.

The new ferry promises to be more efficient, easier to maneuver, safer and cheaper to maintain than any others in the state fleet, said Chris Morgan, a vice president with Vigor.

The 144-car Olympic Class vessel will replace the Cathlamet, which is being moved to the Vashon Island route so the state can retire a ferry built in the 1950s.

“We build these vessels for a 60-year life cycle,” Capacci said. “It will allow us to replace some of the vessels that are 60 years old.”

The Tokitae is the first of three planned vessels in the new Olympic Class. The Tokitae took two years to build. The next boat, the Samish, is under construction and scheduled to be finished in spring 2015. The third boat was funded just this year.

The Tokitae has two diesel engines that crank out 6,000 horsepower. At 362 feet, 3 inches long, it has space for up to 1,500 people.

Mukilteo is getting the Tokitae because more cars travel on that route than any other in the system — more than 2 million last year, according to state transportation officials.

The new vessel will hold 20 more cars than the 124-car Cathlamet.

A Whidbey Island couple in their 50s stood in line to tour one of the Tokitae’s two wheelhouses on Sunday.

“We really do appreciate it and what it going to do for us on the island,” Steve Sloan said.

They hope the added car capacity will cut down on time spent waiting to drive on.

“We sat in a two-hour ferry line yesterday,” Tammi Sloan said.

The Tokitae’s wider main tunnel also will accommodate more trucks or motor homes.

Open passenger decks at each end of the new ferry will be larger, each about half the size of a regulation tennis court, said Broch Bender, a state ferries spokeswoman.

Visitors for the Tokitae’s open house were able to tour a sun deck, which won’t be open to passengers during regular service. The ferry system can only afford to staff the runs with a 12-person crew, given current passenger volumes, Bender said. Using the sun deck would require two more crew members.

“Initially it will be closed,” Bender said. “If more funding arises, we will open it.”

The Tokitae’s name comes from a Coast Salish greeting meaning, “nice day, pretty colors.”

A state commission picked it in 2012 to honor an orca whale captured in Penn Cove off Whidbey Island. Caught in 1970, Tokitae the whale was taken to a Miami sea park, where she has performed for audiences under the name Lolita.

Lolita is the subject of a multiyear dispute between animal rights activists and the privately owned Miami Seaquarium. Activists have petitioned the government to list her under the Endangered Species Act.

A Whidbey-based whale-advocacy group called Orca Network suggested the ferry’s name.

“She’s Lolita now, because she’s performing,” said Howard Garrett, the network’s founder. “When we bring her back, she will be Tokitae; she’ll be Lolita no more.”

In a broader sense, the network hopes the new ferry’s name will raise awareness about troubled orca populations in the Salish Sea.

“It just opens the window to the whale’s presence in these waters so people will know they live here and appreciate that they live here and will want to help them continue to live here,” Garrett said.

The Tokitae is the fourth new ferry built in six years. The three other boats — the Chetzemoka, the Salish and the Kennewick — were built after the 1920s-era Steel Electric Class boats were pulled from the water in 2007 after cracks and corrosion were found in their hulls.

The 124-car Kittitas will continue as the second vessel on the Mukilteo-Clinton route.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.