MADONNA CONSTRUCTION - 17.0

Starboard bow. (Rich Ellefson photo)

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

The harbor ice presently covers only 2/3 of Detroit Harbor, but yet it's plentiful enough, ten inches or so in thickness, to support ice fishermen, and for the more adventurous, their pickup trucks.  Perch must be in the equation in order to promote highway usage to fishing grounds.

Across the globe, and inching closer to home, the corona virus makes itself known, perhaps more on fear than actual impact, although impact, too, begins to not only worry us about the near future, but the impact it has on business for companies relying on international travel, or product sales, or who must otherwise plan for what may yet become a full-blown pandemic.

Shaft tube boring requires special equipment, and in this case experts
who perform this task were sub-contracted by Fincantieri.  Here,
a boring tool has been set up within the engine room.  The over-sized pipe
thickness is reduced, providing ample room for the shaft, but most
importantly, correct alignment with engine and reduction
gear centerline, to within several thousandths tolerance.  The key is to
have an accurate target for the laser-guided machining tool.
(Rich Ellefson photo)   

Despite happenings within this island's harbor, or afar, work continues briskly inside the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding building that houses the new ferry Madonna.  Rich Ellefson sends more weekly photos to keep us abreast of the project's progress, and, once again, changes made in recent weeks are largely unnoticeable to the casual observer.

For those who enjoy seeing physical progress, though, there is the mounted name MADONNA set off by a pair of stars, on the port and starboard bows.  If you look closely, the name is also welded in even larger letters to the "fashion plate" fronting the upper passenger deck.  They're pleasing features, but they have no effect on performance or for Coast Guard approvals, as compared with the boring of the propeller stern tubes or rudder stock tubes.  Machining done by sub-contracted specialists with a specialized machining tool, aimed by laser, are critical to proper shaft alignment, and they become critical to smooth operation underway.

Lube oil tank, looking outboard,
starboard forward corner of
engine room.

There is continuation of painting within the hull, the engine room in particular which receives a finish coat of gloss white over primer, and the insulation of certain below-decks spaces, as well as passenger cabin and pilot house.  Concerning the pilot house, I have no idea of its present status, but we can suppose that rough steel work is ready for interior priming, and insulation, windows, and other finishing details, in addition to a great amount of wiring.

Within a few weeks' time, according to Rich, the Madonna will be moved from Bldg. 411 to the paint shed across the street, where it becomes available to the paint shop crew for exterior hull painting and main deck non-skid preparations.  This process, undertaken within a controlled environment critical for today's epoxy paint application, might take a good three weeks or so to complete.

Beams that are potential head knockers are marked with strips of
orange tape.  The close overhead requires that the pilot house be
attached in a separate, later step once the ferry is outdoors. 

Stainless ice-class propellers and stainless alloy shafts
have been delivered to the Bay Ship machine shop
from Kahlenberg Bros. of Two Rivers.

Once painting is completed, we should find ourselves entering the month of April, along with warmer weather and the likelihood of moving of the ship to a space within the yard where the pilot house can then be set and attached, along with installation of fire fighting equipment, life saving equipment, and passenger benches, while final wiring and piping connections are made--all prior to easing the hull into the water before initial start-up, perhaps as early as mid-April.

-  Dick Purinton