She was the talk of the town for a while Friday afternoon.
Attessa IV, which by any measure is one of the largest yachts in the world, dropped her anchor off City Pier in Port Angeles, not far from this weekend’s beachfront Arts in Action festival.
She is owned by Dennis Washington, 76, a self-made Missoula, Mont.-based billionaire industrialist and philanthropist who has controlling interests in a large consortium of privately held construction, mining and engineering companies in the U.S. and Canada.
With an estimated current net worth of around $4.2 billion, he is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 58th-richest person in America.
To give some perspective to the yacht’s size, the MV Coho, which makes daily runs between Port Angeles and Victoria, is a mere 9 feet longer than the 332-foot Attessa IV.
And the Coho can carry up to 115 cars and trucks and has space for 1,000 passengers.
The Attessa IV’s use of its capacity is stunning.
Attessa IV was launched in 1999 as Evergreen and was originally built for Chang Yung-fa, who is the chairman of the container shipping company, Evergreen Corp.
Washington purchased the yacht in early 2007.
He has spent the ensuing years rebuilding her at the North Vancouver, B.C., shipyard that bears his name, Washington Yachting Group.
This is the fourth yacht Washington has owned, and they have all been named “Attessa.”
In fact Attessa III, a 225-foot Feadship, was seen moored in the Inner Harbour of Victoria early last week.
When Attessa IV was launched as Evergreen, she was 302 feet long.
During her rebuild, she was stretched a bit and is now 332 feet long.
The steel hull of the superyacht is painted a deep dark blue with a red boot stripe, and the aluminum superstructure is painted white with silver-gray highlights.
She is powered by twin Wartsila diesel engines generating a combined 13,200 horsepower.
She cruises at around 21 knots.
About two dozen crew members work aboard the vessel, looking after the owner and up to 18 guests.
There is very little information available through traditional channels about Attessa IV.
Fortunately, I was able to chat with a couple of people close to the rebuild who were privy to some of the details.
They agreed to speak with me only on condition of anonymity.
I was told that more than one million man-hours went into the rebuilding of Attessa IV.
She has approximately 22,000 square feet of living space on five levels that are accessible by a spiral staircase as well as an elevator.
A beauty salon, gymnasium, swimming pool and spa are available for the owners and guests — as is a 3-D cinema.
There are also 35 bathrooms located throughout.
There is no shortage of artwork aboard the vessel, either.
The greatroom alone has three pieces by Pablo Picasso. The lounge on the topmost level was built around a chandelier that was made by Dale Chihuly that is said to have cost $1 million, and there are a number of sculptures onboard by Fernando Botero.
As a foreign-flagged vessel, Attessa IV was required to use the services of a Puget Sound Pilot to come into Port Angeles.
To get the pilot aboard, the yacht’s helicopter was dispatched to the Port Angeles airport to transport him to the aft helipad.
Thanks — and a tip of the bosun’s cap — to Todd Ritchie at the Port Angeles Boat Haven who loaned me his boat so that Capt. Charlie Crane and I could go out and take pictures of Attesssa IV as she made her maiden call in a U.S. port after her rebuild and refit in Vancouver.
Out to sea
Spartan 151 was seen Wednesday heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The unusual looking structure — at least for our waters — is a drilling rig that is being towed to Cook Inlet, Alaska.
[It preceded a different drilling rig that made a stopover in Port Angeles Harbor on Saturday — see photo on Page C7.]
The Spartan 151 drilling platform type is known as a jack-up rig and is owned by Escopeta Oil and Gas, an independent Texas oil exploration company.
A jack-up rig platform — and in particular Spartan 151 — has vertical steel legs that are lowered to the ocean’s floor to create a stable working environment to allow for the drilling of oil or gas wells that can be as deep as 25,000 feet.
Spartan 151 was brought to the Pacific Northwest from the Gulf of Mexico by Kang Sheng Kou, a 512-foot-long heavy lift vessel that is flagged in China.
The semi-submersible ship lifted her burden out of the water, and the 174-foot drilling rig was welded to the deck for the voyage north.
Because the combined bulk of the two vessels was too wide for the Panama Canal, the voyage north took the ship and her cargo around Cape Horn.
On the last leg of her journey in early June, she was diverted to Vancouver Island because of a potential violation of the Jones Act.
The short version of the Jones Act: It is legislation that supports the U.S. maritime industry and requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on board U.S. flagged ships that are constructed in the United States.
Additionally they must be owned by U.S. citizens as well as crewed by U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Escopeta Oil and Gas was under the impression that an earlier waiver of the Jones Act, which brought the drilling platform to the Gulf of Mexico, applied to the current relocation of Spartan 151 to Alaskan waters.
Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security thought otherwise, and the drilling rig remained in Canadian waters until the snafu was resolved.
Refueling station
On Monday in Port Angeles Harbor, Tesoro Petroleum refueled Overseas Los Angeles, a 576-foot petroleum products carrier.
Then on Tuesday, Tesoro bunkered the 593-foot cargo ship, CSL Cabo, and IVS Kwela, a 581-foot Panamanian-flagged cargo ship.
On Wednesday, Tesoro provided bunkers to SeaRiver American Progress, a 575-foot tanker, and to Alaskan Explorer, a 941-foot oil tanker.
On Friday, Tesoro finished up the week by refueling Empire State, a year-old petroleum products carrier that is 576 feet long.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats, ships and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
