BC Ferries cancelled eight sailings today on major routes between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island due to the failure of an engine on the Queen of Oak Bay Thursday night.
One of the boat’s main engines failed during the 5 p.m. sailing from Nanaimo to Vancouver’s Horseshoe Bay. “The captain did muster the fire party,” said BC Ferries spokeswoman, Deborah Marshall. “There was no fire, there was smoke coming from a clutch.”…
…As I said earlier, I was confused by repeated news reports today in which a BC Ferries spokeswoman was quoted as saying the Queen of Oak Bay wobbled in to Horseshoe Bay on one engine Thursday night with a “smoking clutch”.
I was confused because I’d got a call when the coast guard hovercraft was scrambled to the scene after the coast guard was contacted by the ferry — which was reporting a crankcase explosion.
I’m not sure what the clutch issue was all about, but here is what has actually been determined so far, according to sources who would know: It was the crankcase. The liner had a crack of some sort. Cylinder lubricant was washed away. The doors on the case blew. One piston in particular suffered damage….
…In the days just following the (Queen of the North) ferry sinking, Chris Montgomery, a Province reporter who has long led the pack in maritime news, broke stories about the Queen of the North’s delayed decommission date and the inaccurate passenger manifests. But after Montgomery co-wrote a story claiming an RCMP investigation into possible criminal negligence by B.C. Ferries was underway, Hahn publicly took issue with the claim that B.C. Ferries was itself the target of the investigation. An RCMP representative told The Tyee the difference of opinion between Montgomery and Hahn is one of “semantics,” though a criminal investigation can not be formally announced until the TSB issues its report, possibly years away.
In the meantime, B.C. Ferries no longer returns Montgomery’s phone calls….
