Restoration and fundraising efforts are well advanced and it is hoped the historic vessel can return to the harbour about September after a break of more than 50 years.
The 12.9m vessel was built in Auckland 109 years ago as a pilot launch, and is the oldest surviving such launch in the country.
Work is continuing to add a wheelhouse and cabin, and a diesel engine will soon be installed.
The weight of vessels is often established from water-line calculations while they are afloat, but Elsie Evans remains on land as restoration work continues.
The Dunedin police commercial vehicle investigation unit provided metal pads usually used for weighing trucks to help marine consultants calculate the vessel's weight.
Project organisers said Community Trust of Otago recently confirmed a $30,000 donation, bringing the trust's overall donations to the project to $85,000.
Project treasurer Hugh Montgomery said he was "really thrilled" to see the vessel being weighed for the first time in more than 50 years.
About $315,000 had already been raised for the project, and the ferry would become a "heritage asset" for Dunedin and Otago when completed.
In 1901, the vessel became the first pilot boat owned by the Timaru Harbour Board and was named after the wife of then board chairman William Evans.
It later plied Otago Harbour in various roles, including as a ferry, from 1928.
Its days as a ferry ended in 1954, and it later spent 17 years lying under a macrocarpa hedge in Waihola before being brought to Dunedin.
