B.C. Ferries to resume full service on Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route after vessel repairs

The B.C. Ferries vessel that had to be pulled for repairs, causing major delays over the past two weeks, is set to return to service on Friday, the corporation said in a statement.

The Coastal Celebration — which ran on the busy Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route — will be repaired overnight on Wednesday, with sea trials to be conducted on Thursday night, it said.

The ship carries up to 310 cars and 1,604 passengers and crew between Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria eight times a day.

When it was taken out of service, ferry customers reported numerous delays on one of the system's busiest routes.

The corporation said that the vessel — which had been pulled from service on July 19, following another service reduction a few weeks prior — had an ineffective seal around its propeller, which had caused fluid to leak.

"Upon inspection of the blade assembly, it was confirmed that the components were installed correctly and the root cause was a failure of the seal material itself," reads the Wednesday statement. "All four blade seals are now in the process of being replaced."

Marine engineers and shipyard workers are expected to work "through the night" on Wednesday to repair the vessel, which had entered dry dock on July 24.

The first sailing of the day on Friday, July 28 — shortly after the ship's sea trials — may have limited food service, according to B.C. Ferries, due to the limited turnaround time.

"Customers with bookings on the Coastal Celebration on Friday are advised to arrive as planned," read the statement. "If there are any changes to the vessel's scheduled return, customer care will contact them directly."

Pulled out of service twice

The Coastal Celebration was first pulled from service shortly before the Canada Day long weekend, with the corporation saying at the time that it was due to regular maintenance that had to be pushed back.

B.C. Ferries' executive director of engineering, Stephen Jones, had told All Points West host Jason D'Souza on Tuesday that the mandatory annual refit on the vessel had to be pushed back by half a month.

"We tried to compress that normal four-week refit period into a three-week period," Jones said. "But because of arising work, unfortunately, it did take four weeks, and that's why it ran into the long weekend."

The problems with the Coastal Celebration didn't end there. The vessel saw several cancelled sailings in the weeks after the refit due to a mechanical issue with its propulsion system.

Following those issues, a hydraulic oil leak around the propeller meant it had to be taken to dry dock for repairs on Monday — and across B.C., there are only three shipyards in two facilities that can accommodate B.C. Ferries' largest vessels.

Jones said the seal failure on the vessel was the first of its kind he had seen in the Coastal Celebration's 15 years of service.