The Intrepid Heading For Drydock Repairs

The USS Intrepid, which is the centerpiece of the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York City is going to be undergoing a series of repairs in a drydock, which means that the ship will be out of commission as a musuem and learning center for several months. The museum attracts more than 500,000 visitors a year:

The buzz about the Intrepid's impending shore leave has been making the rounds of the ship's former crewmen. Charles Coppess, who spent two years aboard the Intrepid from 1959 to 1961 and now lives in Portage, Ind., said he heard talk at a reunion of the ship's alumni last week in Louisville, Ky., that it might be headed for a dry dock in Bayonne.

Executives of Bayonne Dry Dock and Repair Corporation, which was frequently mentioned as a possible site for the repairs, did not respond to several requests for comment this week.

If city officials knew more about the plans for moving one of the city's better-known attractions, they were not saying.

Three members of Community Board 4 met yesterday morning aboard the Intrepid with executives of the Intrepid Museum Foundation. But they came away with few details about the plan, said John Doswell, a co-chairman of the board's waterfront and parks committee.

Mr. Doswell said that William White, president of the foundation, had indicated that the ship's removal for repair would coincide with the replacement of Pier 86, the city-owned dock that the Intrepid is tied to.

The work on the pier could take up to two years, Mr. Doswell said, but he added that he did not yet know when the Intrepid would leave its berth or when it would return. He said Mr. White promised to lay out his plans in detail at the next public meeting of Community Board 4, on July 13.

The Intrepid has become a landmark on the West Side of Manhattan, and the Essex class carrier is joined by the submarine Growler, and a collection of aircraft, and other artifacts including a Concorde, an A-12 spyplane (relative of the SR-71 Blackbird, F-16, F-14, A/V-8 Harrier, and other historic aircraft.