Washington State’s first hybrid-electric ferry continues to face mechanical setbacks, as the Wenatchee was briefly pulled from service again on Sunday, Nov. 9. The sidelined ferry marks the third service interruption since the vessel rejoined the fleet in July.
A Washington State Ferries (WSF) spokesperson told local news that one of the ferry’s main engines shut down twice due to a fault in the overspeed protection circuit. Engineers corrected the issue Sunday evening, and the 460'2"x90' vessel returned to its Monday morning schedule with the first sailing to Bainbridge Island at 4:45 a.m.
The Wenatchee is nearly 30 years old and recently completed a 22-month conversion at Vigor Marine’s Seattle shipyard to replace two diesel engines with a battery-hybrid propulsion package. The retrofit is part of WSF’s long-term plan to transition its largest vessels to hybrid-electric operation.
In August, just one month after returning to service, the Wenatchee was temporarily sidelined when two of its four drive motors experienced problems while docking at Seattle’s Colman Dock, according to WSF. The vessel remained out of service for about a month while crews addressed what the agency later described as a commissioning-phase issue.
The ferry was reintroduced but removed from service again in late October after a failure within one of its electrical subsystems.
WSF returned the Wenatchee to operation on Nov. 7, only to pull it from service again two days later due to the most recent engine shutdown.
WSF said repeated issues are not unusual for a newbuild or a vessel undergoing a significant mid-life upgrade. The commissioning period typically surfaces problems that do not appear during shipyard testing, they said.
The Wenatchee is among the largest vessels in the fleet and the first of three Jumbo Mark II ferries slated for hybrid-electric conversions. Sister ships Tacoma and Puyallup were scheduled to follow shortly after Wenatchee’s return, but Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has postponed the work to keep the fleet at full operational capacity ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will include several matches in Seattle.
