Storis icebreaker arrives in Juneau, will offer free public tours Thursday and Friday
- Natalie Buttner
- Aug 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 7
U.S. Coast Guard ship slated to be homeported in Alaska’s capital city will be commissioned Sunday as part of welcoming events during coming days
By Natalie Buttner
Reporter
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Storis has reached her future homeport city for the first time. The icebreaker docked at midday Wednesday at the Auke Bay Ferry Terminal, where public tours are scheduled Thursday and Friday, according to an official announcement.
The Storis is scheduled to depart the Auke Bay terminal at 9 a.m. Saturday for a five-hour voyage to downtown Juneau. The ship is scheduled to be commissioned Aug. 10, after which an initial deployment to the northern parts of the state is scheduled.
“I just want people to be able to see and experience the Coast Guard’s newest icebreaker,” said Cmdr. Curt Gookin, executive officer aboard the Storis.
Gookin said that the commissioning ceremony highlights the work of the crew, members of the community in Juneau and Alaskan representatives who have helped the Coast Guard acquire and ready the vessel. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, an advocate for the acquisition of the Storis, will be attending the commissioning ceremony.
“It's a neat opportunity because it's the official entry of the vessel in the Coast Guard service,” Gookin said.
Also scheduled during the weekend is a free screening of the documentary film "STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast" by filmmaker Damon Stuebner is scheduled at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum.
The Storis, originally built in 2012 as a privately operated ship known as the Aiviq, was purchased by the Coast Guard last year from an Edison Chouest Offshore subsidiary. The ship is undergoing extensive modifications to make it ready for full mission deployment.
According to Gookin, the ship left Seattle on July 24 and stopped to do exercises outside of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Sitka.
“It's got a very different engine configuration than any of our other vessels, so we have more maneuverability than any other vessel in the Coast Guard fleet, and it's an exciting chance to learn to drive a different ship,” Gookin said.
Coast Guard officials have said it will be several years before the ship is fully ready to be homeported in Juneau with an estimated full crew of 190.
Gookin said there are currently 64 crew aboard, a mix of Coast Guard personnel and Edison Chouest Offshore contractors. Coast Guard Lt. D.J. Corbett drove the ship into Juneau.
“The contractors, they're here because they operated this ship before. They're here to teach us all of their tips and tricks and how the ship runs and operates,” Corbett said.
According to Corbett, the Coast Guard contract with Edison Chouest Offshore contractors goes until November and the Storis should be operating with a complete Coast Guard crew by next summer.
The Storis is scheduled to serve limited seasonal patrols in Alaska and undergo further service work in the Lower 48 until homeporting in Juneau is feasible.
“They're still building out the infrastructure for Juneau. Right now, we're temporarily home ported in Seattle, and we're hoping to move up here in the next couple years,” Corbett said.
Corbett said that the types of missions the Storis will undertake will remain unknown until the Coast Guard can better assess the capabilities of the ship. One possibility may be regulating fishing in the Arctic and North Pacific. However, significant training and modification are required in the immediate future.
“Our primary focus is just learning and training on a new ship,” Corbett said.
• Contact Natalie Buttner at natalieb@juneauindependent.com. Editor Mark Sabbatini contributed to this story.
