The ferry Martha’s Vineyard was pulled from service again Wednesday morning because of a generator issue and is headed to the Fairhaven maintenance facility for repairs, Steamship Authority representatives confirmed.
Marc Hanover, the Vineyard representative on the Steamship Authority board of governors, told the Gazette that the boat line decided to pull the ferry out of service after discovering a problem with the generator. The ferry was still running under its own power, he said.
According to a statement by Steamship Authority general manager Robert Davis, the issue was discovered Tuesday night, and in light of a recent power outage aboard the ferry the decision was made to take the vessel out of service for additional work and testing.
A contractor responsible for a recent $18.5 million mid-life refurbishment of the boat is on-site at the Steamship Authority facility to work with the SSA maintenance team on the issue.
The Steamship Authority said the Martha’s Vineyard would be out of service for up to a week. In the meantime the freight ferry Sankaty will run the Martha’s Vineyard’s published schedule, Mr. Davis said. There are limited passenger amenities aboard the Sankaty, he said, but he did not expect that to affect passenger traffic. Because the Sankaty has less space for vehicles, there may be delays transporting vehicles to and from the Vineyard, he said.
“We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause,” Mr. Davis said in the statement. “The safe and reliable operation of all Steamship Authority vessels is our highest priority.”
A scheduled Woods Hole trip was cancelled earlier Wednesday because the Martha’s Vineyard was taking up the ferry slip, Mr. Hanover said, but otherwise the Woods Hole is running as scheduled.
The most recent ferry concern comes after a week of ferry woes for the Steamship Authority, including an incident Saturday night in which the Martha’s Vineyard lost power off East Chop with more than 70 passengers aboard. The boat had to be towed back to port in a five-hour ordeal and was out of service for a day. It resumed making runs Monday morning after being cleared by the Coast Guard, and Steamship Authority representatives said the problem was traced to a poor installation job by an electrician that worked on the refurbishment.
The Martha’s Vineyard was pulled from service again Wednesday morning because of the discovery of the generator issue, Mr. Hanover said. Boats are not allowed to run without a back-up generator per the Coast Guard, he said, and the decision was made to send the ferry back to the Steamship Authority’s maintenance facility in Fairhaven to get all issues addressed.
“It’s got a few things that aren’t functioning,” Mr. Hanover said. He said the ferry was running under its own power but accompanied by a tugboat, as required by the Coast Guard.
“I don’t know if this is because we rushed the boat [to get it back into service],” Mr. Hanover said.
He said he expected the ferry issues to be resolved by the busy summer season. “These boats are excellent boats and they’re going to run fine,” he said. “They’re just shaking them out.”
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