Repowering the Golden Gate Ferries
Federal “stimulus money” and other funding on the federal, state, and local levels is making it possible for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District (GGB District) to complete a $40-million refurbishing and re-powering program for its fleet of seven ferries. The program was triggered not only by increased rider-ship, but also by diesel-emission standards established by California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) earlier this year. These new “regs” mandate that engines of commercial harbor-craft, including ferries, be re-powered to meet EPA’s Tier II emission standards. (See (MR&EN, March 2009, pgs. 30-31.) When this work is completed, Golden Gate Ferries can lay claim to being one of the country’s greenest ferry fleets, with the Bridge District’s policy mandating that emissions for its ferries exceed CARB standards by being reduced to EPA Tier II Minus 20 and, that its ferries be capable of utilizing bio-diesel fuels.
According to Jim Swindler, who manages Golden Gate’s fleet, “We will actually complete the rebuilding of the entire system in the next five years. It started in 2007 with the refurbishing of the older single-hull Marin which is now operating on the Sausalito to San Francisco run.” It is being followed by the four catamarans, and the program is expected to conclude in 2011 with the repowering of the single- hull San Francisco for use in service to the ball park and special occasions. That leaves the third of the older single-hull ferries with an uncertain future.
Golden Gate Ferries, the largest public passenger-ferry operation on the West Coast, caries almost 2 million passengers annually between San Francisco’s Ferry Building and two terminals in Marin County: one in Sausalito, near the Golden Gate Bridge, and the other farther north at Larkspur Landing. Currently, the fleet includes three of the original single-hull aluminum vessels (Spauldings) dating from 1976, plus two high-speed catamarans, the Del Norte and the Mendocino, that were added a few years later, and two additional high-speed catamarans purchased last year from Washington State Ferries for only $4 million. Although relatively new, these vessels still require refurbishing to meet the district’s needs and re-powering to meet the state’s emission standards, and those costs are included in the overall program. Working closely with Marine Systems in Boston on the re-engineering.of these boats, the Bridge’s engineering staff has selected the MTU 12V4000M73 as the engine that meets both the District’s power rating requirements and CARB’s emission standards.
All of Golden Gate’s aluminum catamarans have been built by shipbuilders in Washington State, and brought to the Bay Area. Swindler noted that “It takes $50,000 to get a boat down here under from Seattle under its own power. We don’t do it ourselves, but instead contract it out.” Because of that cost, maintenance and shipyard work on the boats has been performed almost exclusively in the Bay Area, and almost exclusively by Bay Ship & Yacht in Alameda, the only local yard that specializes in both aluminum and steel harbor craft.
One would think that, with the rich shipbuilding history of the bay, especially during World War II, there would be plenty of shipyards to choose from. But, they have closed and the Navy has pulled out. . Until recently, BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair (formerly the historic San Francisco Drydock) also did work on aluminum boats, but now the yard’s focus is on cruise ships and tankers, plus ocean-going steel barges. Some day there may be additional facilities in the Bay Area, and with the growing fleet of ferries on San Francisco Bay, perhaps the ferries will actually be built in California where they are used.