Gov. Christine Gregoire announced Monday that Washington State Ferries (WSF) will not build a controversial Steilacoom II-style ferry, after pressure from Port Townsend and Vashon — the communities that would most likely end up with the ferry.

Instead, the ferry system will attempt to resolve its current boat shortage by building two larger Island Home boats.

The Steilacoom II can fit 50 cars, but rides low on the water and is thus not suited to rough water. It also has weight restrictions and difficulty loading large vehicles during low tides. The Island Home ferries fit 60 cars and 1,200 passengers, although WSF will modify the ferries to hold 650 people to reduce the crew, save operating costs and make the boats more appropriate for the ferry system, said Hadley Greene, WSF spokesperson.

Last week, Jim English, the president of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council, wrote a letter to WSF and state transportation officials expressing Islanders’ opposition to a Steilacoom II.

The Steilacoom II “clone” was going to be built as a stopgap measure for the strapped Port Townsend-Keystone route until a more appropriate vessel could be built. The Port Townsend route late last year lost its ferries after the state’s sudden decision to decommission all four of its so-called steel-electric ferries because of safety concerns.

The state was able to lease the region’s Steilacoom II from Pierce County until this September. WSF was scrambling to find a boat it could build quickly for the route and thought a Steilacoom II was the quick fix.

But on Monday Pierce County agreed to lease its 1994 ferry Christine Anderson, almost identical to the Steilacoom II, to WSF until an Island Home ferry is built.

WSF expects to have the first Island Home ferry completed in April 2010, Greene said. In the longer term, the system will also build two 144-car ferries, but designs have not been completed, nor has a completion date been set.

If built as a stopgap for the Port Townsend run, the Steilacoom II duplicate eventually would be replaced by an Island Home ferry and end up on another short route — almost certainly, Vashon ferry activists feared, the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route.

Greg Beardsley, Vashon ferry advisory committee member and VMICC transportation committee member, called the Steilacoom II a “loose cannon” that he considered sub-par. He expressed his relief that the boat would never be built or thrust upon the Vashon community.

“I think it was a smart move,” he said. “I think it’s better for all of us as taxpayers and rate-payers.”

The Steilacoom II, he said, is built to lower safety standards than the Rhododendron, the ferry that serves the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route and the oldest active boat in the WSF fleet. Many runs have been cancelled on the Port Townsend-Keystone route due to the Steilacoom II’s inability to handle inclement weather. On one occasion, the boat took on two feet of water, but miraculously, it was when no cars were aboard.

Alan Mendel, chair of the Vashon ferry advisory committee, had also opposed the Steilacoom II plan from the start but didn’t see a solution to WSF’s crisis.

He said it was “excellent” news that a copy of the Steilacoom II would not be added to the state’s fleet.

“I thought it was so wrong,” he said. “It’s a good boat for Anderson Island (in Pierce County). It was built for that. But it doesn’t fit anywhere in the Washington State Ferry system. I’m happy they decided not to do that.”

He estimated it would be three or four years before the Rhododendron will be replaced, despite its critical condition.