CLASS: Issaquah

BUILT/REBUILT: 1980/1990 Marine Power & Equipment Seattle WA/

OFFICIAL NUMBER: D627507 CALL SIGN: WYQ9302

L/B/D: 328 x 79 x 17 GROSS/NET TONS: 2476/1756     PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 1200/124 cars

PROPULSION: 2 GE 7 FDM-12 diesels, variable pitch propellers, 5000 HP SPEED: 16 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: name is from the Native American word K’tatus, meaning “gray gravel bank”; it refers to an extensive gravel bank on a river shoal near Ellensburg.

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service, 2024.

HISTORY

Second out of the yard at Marine Power and Equipment, the Kittitas arrived with little fanfare. She would, however, prove to be the most stable of the six, with little of the problems exhibited so spectacularly with her sister, Cathlamet.

In her early career the Kittitas wandered a bit. First sent to work on Hood Canal, she filled in on various routes, working the San Juan Islands in the summer. It wasn’t long, though, before she was assigned to the Mukilteo-Clinton route, where she remained until 2019, leaving only for maintenance periods.

The next-to-last Issaquah Class ferry to have her interior refurbished, the ferry was long overdue for an upgrade. The “rainbow” color of the Kit was yellow—a color that didn’t age particularly well.

The long-standing duo of Cathlamet and Kittitas were broken up with the arrival of the Tokitae in 2014.  Cathlamet was reassigned permanently to the Vashon Island run.

The Kittitas continued on the Mukilteo route for five more years, but with the arrival of the Olympic Class Suquamish, the ferry was reassigned to Vashon Island, where she rejoined her longtime route mate.