I think that every person living on Vancouver Island has some sort of love/hate relationship with BC Ferries – I rather like the ferries but am not a fan of the food onboard or the high fare that I have to pay to even walk onto one of them. Anyhow, a lot of people are more than annoyed that the terminals at Little River near Comox and Westview in Powell River will be closed for some much needed repairs and improvements – both at the same time. This means that Powell River can only be accessed from Vancouver Island if you drive to Departure Bay in Nanaimo, take a ferry to Saltery Bay and then drive to Powell River.
At the same time, the Queen of Burnaby (the regular ferry) is in refit and the smaller Island Sky is filling in for her.
The Island Sky is the last of the three Intermediate Class (I Class) ferries. The other two ships in this class are the Queen of Capilano , built in 1992 by Vancouver Shipyards, and the Queen of Cumberland, built in 1992 by Vancouver Shipyards. Unique to the intermediate sized vessels, the Island Sky has a main car deck as well as gallery decks on either side to increase vehicle capacity.
The passenger section of the Island Sky was built at the Washington Marine Group (WMG) shipyards in Esquimalt, while the engines and hull were assembled at WMG’s North Vancouver facility. On 8 December 2008, BC Ferries formally accepted the vessel.
- Built: 2008, Washington Marine Group, Vancouver
- Entered Service: 19 February 2009
- Overall Length: 102.4 metres
- Maximum Displacement: 3,420 tonnes
- Gross Tonnage: 4,313 tonnes
- Car Capacity: 125
- Passenger & Crew Capacity: 462
- Engines: four matched sets of Niigata medium speed diesel engines, with an output of 1,323 kilowatts (1,800 horsepower), operating at 750 rpm
- Propulsion: Niigata Z-peller right-angle drive propellers
- Maximum Speed: 16 knots
The Queen of Capilano and the Queen of Cumberland are slightly smaller and slower than the Island Sky:
- Overall Length: 96.0 m
- Car Capacity Queen of Capilano: 85, Queen of Cumberland: 127
- Gross Tonnage: Queen of Capilano: 2,500, Queen of Cumberland: 2,662
- Crew: 10-14
- Passenger & Crew Capacity: 451
- Horsepower: 7,302
- Maximum Speed: 12.6 knots
In the spring of 2007, the Queen of Capilano was upgraded to “Baltic ice class” to better deal with the large amounts of debris often found in Howe Sound.