B.C. Ferries to pay full $8.5M for engine fixes on three ships

VICTORIA B.C. Ferries has decided against pursuing an insurance claim for engine problems on its three Coastal class ships and has opted instead to pay the estimated $8.5-million cost out of its contingency fund.

“Taking into consideration our insurance deductible and potential for insurance rate increases if we were to make a claim, we have now decided to fund this repair out of our contingency account, which is in place for major incidents such as this one,” Jeff Groot, a B.C. Ferries spokesperson, said Monday.

“When you consider all the costs related to design, freight (air/sea), the rotors themselves and the work to exchange them, installing six rotors is about $1.4 million each, or approximately $8.5 million total.”

Coastal Renaissance serves the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route. It returned to work on March 4 after it was sidelined on Aug. 17, 2023, and taken to Departure Bay in Nanaimo. The motor was then sent to the U.S. for investigation and repair. A problem discovered with the ferry 's rotor (the rotating part of an electric motor) prompted B.C. Ferries to investigate the other two Coastal vessels, where they discovered similar problems.

The German-built ferries, which went into service in 2007 and 2008, were equipped with motors that vibrated when in dock. The decision was made to turn off the motors until the next sailing.

That doubled the number of starts for the engines and led to the need to replace the rotors, B.C. Ferries said. The company has decided to install variable-speed motors to avoid a similar engine problem in the future.