Englishtown Ferry Gets Early Refit

Transportation and Public Works maintenance crews are taking advantage of ice jamming St. Ann's Bay to overhaul the Englishtown ferry.

The ferry is undergoing its annual refit earlier than usual and will be back in service within two weeks.

"While waiting for the ice to shift so service could resume, we carried out our mechanical refit. When that work went so well, we decided to do the whole job," said Doug Smith, director of fleet management. "Completing the work now means we won't have to pull the ferry out of service later this spring."

The refit entails jacking the ferry up on site, sandblasting, inspecting the hull and applying a new protective coating.

Shifting ice in St. Ann's Bay interrupts ferry service almost every winter.

"There hasn't been much ice around this past week and the refit is under way so we hope to have the boat back in service during the week of March 22," said Mr. Smith.

The Englishtown ferry can carry up to 12 passenger vehicles at a time. It travels from Englishtown to Jersey Cove, Victoria Co.