$3.5M refit planned for 49-year-old ferry out of service since 2015

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is going ahead with millions of dollars worth of repairs to get a ferry built in 1968 back in the water with some assistance from Ottawa.

The Sound of Islay has been out of service since the fall of 2015, when a routine annual refit turned up big problems.

At the time, a Transport Canada inspector identified "major areas" of the underwater hullin excess of 25 per cent deterioration. Thatis the regulatory limit.Initial estimates pegged the cost of repairs at $5 million.

• Sound of Islay, built in 1968, needs $5M fix to hit water

Transportation Minister Al Hawkins says the province has looked to the feds for help.

According to Hawkins, Ottawa ultimately agreed to pony up one-third of the $3.5 million tender for work to repair the Sound of Islay.

"With the federal funding that we have now, it really does make business sense for us to move forward on that," Hawkins said.

The Sound of Islay will be towed from Clarenville to St. John's, where the work will be done.

'A fair amount of work' to be done

According to Hawkins, those repairs are expected to take between five and seven months. The ship will then have to be certified as seaworthy.

"There's a fair amount of work that's got to be done on that, and it may take longer," Hawkins said.

"I just hate using time frames in which we're working. We always like to have our projections. But a lot of times we run into unforeseen situations that prolong these repairs. So we're hoping to have that, for sure, within a year."

• Read more articles by Rob Antle

Whenever it comes back into service, the Sound of Islay will be able to work as a swing vessel that can be used in every port in the province. Swing vessels fill in for other ferries that are out of service, for either scheduled or unscheduled repairs.