These island class boats were coming into service while I was a coastie in the late 80's. The ship I was on was a WWII era WLM class buoy tender, several decades past it's service life. It wasn't fun.
It doesn't seem right for a boat only 20 years old to have reached it's service life.
The original concept was for them to have a ten year service life. The difference between your old boat and the Island Class is all in the original construction; your ship was made of steel, the Island Class is aluminum...light aluminum...overstressed aluminum.
If you were to ask me if I wanted to go into a major storm in the Gulf of Alaska on a WLB (WWII, slow, single screw, 180' buoy tender...kind of like a big tug for those who don't know) or a brand new Island Class, I'd take the WLB in a heart beat.