VANCOUVER — B.C. Ferries’ recently retired Queen of Nanaimo is on an epic trans-Pacific journey to her new posting in Fiji as the third of the ferry corporation’s vessels to find service with a company owned by a former senior employee.
The corporation confirmed that it sold the aging Queen of Nanaimo to Goundar Shipping Ltd. of Fiji, a firm founded in 2011 by former B.C. Ferries senior engineer George Goundar.
The ferry was sold this year after a “transparent and wide-reaching bid process,” B.C. Ferries vice-president Mark Wilson said.
Wilson, who is in charge of strategic planning, said he wouldn’t disclose a final sale price on the 53-year-old vessel for competitive reasons.
In Fijian news coverage, Goundar has characterized the acquisition as a $2.5-million US investment for the company.
“Under commercial terms, we don’t release [prices] because I’m going to have more ships on the market and I want to maintain confidentiality,” Wilson said.
However, he said the sale involved an extensive request for expressions of interest, which was widely advertised on the West Coast, through an international ship broker and other websites that advertise government liquidation sales.
“For the most part, vessels, when they come due for retirement, their value isn’t significant in the scheme of things,” Wilson said. Queen of Nanaimo had a value of zero on the corporation’s books, he said, having been fully depreciated as an asset.
Capable of carrying 164 cars and 1,005 passengers and crew, Queen of Nanaimo served the Tsawwassen and Southern Gulf Islands route for three decades. It suffered maintenance problems with a propeller that kept it out of service and prompted an earlier-than-expected retirement of the vessel.
Wilson wouldn’t comment on whether the new owner will have the same maintenance issues, but Goundar told the Fiji Sun the ship’s regular service, expected to start Dec. 11, should deliver an economic boost to the island country’s northern and eastern regions.
The ship is expected to pass Hawaii by Friday before arriving in Fiji on Nov. 27, according to the newspaper.
B.C. Ferries spent about $6 million on Queen of Nanaimo over two maintenance refits, one in 2010 and another in 2015. Wilson said those repairs were needed to maintain its classification under Transport Canada regulations.
The ship, he said, hasn’t had any significant capital upgrades in the last 10 years.
Goundar launched his Fijian firm with the 2011 purchase of the former Queen of Prince Rupert, renamed Lomaiviti Princess I following a 30-year career with B.C. Ferries, with the goal of improving inter-island transportation.
Goundar bought the former Queen of Chilliwack in 2014 for a reported $1.8 million after it received a $15-million refit.
Queen of Nanaimo will be renamed Lomaiviti Princess V when it goes into service, which will be a dignified renewal, according to a former regular passenger, Hal Wright.
Wright, a B.C. history buff who maintains the ghost town of Sandon in the Interior, ran a trucking business in the 1980s that served the Southern Gulf Islands at the time that Queen of Nanaimo went into service on that route.
“It’s kind of a happy ending, in my opinion,” Wright said, “because so many ferries of that era were sold to scrap dealers for next to nothing. This one is starting a brand new life in Fiji, and it’s kind of magnificent.”
