Marine Log January 2021

ARINE OG M L www.marinelog.com

R E P O R T I N G O N M A R I N E B U S I N E S S & T E C H N O L O G Y S I N C E 18 78

January 2021

THE VACCINE IS HERE

What Does it Mean for Maritime?

EUROPEAN MARITIME What’s Beyond a Challenging 2020?

WHY SUCCESSFUL SHIPBUILDING Is All About the Supply Chain

PASSENGER VESSELS: Pandemic Puts Pause on Green Initiatives

CONTENTS

16

19

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

2 EDITOR’S LETTER Buttigieg Nomination Points Way To Greener DOT

14

EUROPEAN MARITIME Europe Looks Beyond a Challenging Year COVID-19 has changed a lot, but what it hasn’t changed is the fact that Europe remains a leading center of maritime technological innovation

16

SUPPLIERS & SHIPBUILDING Success is All About the Supply Chain Successful shipbuilding depends on having a reliable infrastructure of suppliers who can provide it with a very broad range of support

19

FLEET MANAGEMENT Mining the New Gold: Fleet Data Managers of fleets of all kinds and sizes are increasingly looking to sophisticated software solutions to help them

22

SALVAGING THE GOLDEN RAY Golden Ray Responders Make Headway Among the top ranking stories on Marine Log’s website last year were those covering the response to the capsized car carrier Golden Ray

4 INLAND WATERWAYS Ending a Challenging Year on a Good Note 6 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 8 WELLNESS What to Know When Considering the COVID-19 Vaccine 9 VESSEL OF THE MONTH Plimsoll Marine’s Grain Express Towboat 10 UPDATES • Keppel AMFELS Lays Keel for First Jones Act WTIV • Interlake Buys an ATB and a Historic Ferry 13 INSIDE WASHINGTON Key Maritime Legislation Survives Veto Threats

24

27 NEWSMAKERS Erik Fabrikant to be SEACOR Holdings CEO 28 TECH NEWS Dream Ship Fitted with Ultra Compact SCR Solution 32 SAFETY Safety: A Way of Life

26

PASSENGER VESSELS Green Dreams and Pandemic Blues The present for passenger vessel operations in the U.S., as elsewhere in the world, can best be summed up as “challenging” Q&A: COVID-19 VACCINE What Should Employers Know About COVID-19 Vaccine?

We recently talked to Jones Walker LLP law firm to get a clearer picture of what legal options there are for employers when it comes to the vaccine

Cover Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ theskaman306 January 2021 // Marine Log 1

EDITOR’S COLUMN Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/ vasilis asvestas

MARINELOG JANUARY 2021 VOL. 126, NO. 1 ISSN 08970491 USPS 576-910 SUBSCRIPTIONS: 800-895-4389

Tel: +1 (402) 346-4740 (Canada & International) Fax: +1 (402) 346-3670 Email: marinelog@stamats.com PRESIDENT Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr. amcginnis@sbpub.com PUBLISHER GULF COAST & MIDWEST SALES Gary Lynch glynch@sbpub.com

Buttigieg Nomination Points Way To Greener DOT

P

resident-elect Joe Biden seems to have hope that Pete Buttigieg, former presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Ind., could help him sell Congress on a massive jobcreating investment in infrastructure that would also attempt to lessen the impact of climate change.

With Biden promising to lead an ambitious plan to combat climate change, his selection of Buttigieg as his nominee for Secretary of Transportation makes sense.

“When I think of climate change, I think about jobs, good-paying union jobs,” Biden told a crowd of reporters in December. “Jobs that put Americans to work, making our air cleaner for our kids to breathe, restoring our crumbling roads, bridges and ports, making it faster, cheaper and cleaner to transport American-made goods all across the country and the world.”

Giving the EPA back its teeth in the climate change game, Biden’s pick to lead the country’s EPA is Michael Regan. He’s spent nearly a decade working in the EPA’s air-quality program under former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. If confirmed, Regan will have his hands full after four years when, in the eyes of many, agency scientists were sidelined in an effort to reduce environmental and public health regulations.

One question we have is how, if at all, will these new appointments accelerate the offshore

wind industry, for which the U.S. offshore services industry has high hopes.

In addition to helping the U.S. to cut down on carbon emissions, offshore wind could potentially attract billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs, especially off the Atlantic Coast where offshore wind projects are already in the works.

Under the current administration, no commercial offshore wind projects have been able to secure federal permits as delays continue across the industry.

“OMSA looks forward to working with Mayor Buttigieg if he is confirmed as Transportation Secretary,” says OMSA President Aaron Smith. “We hope that he is fully engaged and vocal in his support for and defense of the U.S. maritime industry and Jones Act.” The questions don’t end there. Now that things are looking a bit greener, will the industry receive any money to modify its fleet or its ports to comply with whatever green initiatives come from the new administration? If so, from where will it come?

WEB EDITOR Nicholas Blenkey nblenkey@sbpub.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Paul Bartlett paul.bartlett@live.co.uk ART DIRECTOR Nicole D’Antona ndantona@sbpub.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Hillary Coleman hcoleman@sbpub.com MARKETING DIRECTOR Erica Hayes ehayes@sbpub.com PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Mary Conyers mconyers@sbpub.com INTEGRATED ACCOUNT MANAGER US EAST/WEST COAST & INTERNATIONAL David Harkey dharkey@sbpub.com SALES REPRESENTATIVE KOREA & CHINA Young-Seoh Chinn corres1@jesmedia.com CLASSIFIED SALES Jennifer Izzo jizzo@mediapeople.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Maureen Cooney mcooney@sbpub.com CONFERENCE DIRECTOR Michelle M. Zolkos mzolkos@sbpub.com CONFERENCE ASSISTANT Stephanie Rodriguez srodriguez@sbpub.com CONTRIBUTORS Emily Reiblein Crowley Maritime Corporation Tracy Zea Waterways Council Inc.

HEATHER ERVIN Editor-in-Chief hervin@sbpub.com

Marine Log Magazine (Print ISSN 0897-0491, Digital ISSN 2166-210X), (USPS#576-910), (Canada Post Cust. #7204564; Agreement #40612608; IMEX Po Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada) is published 11 times per year, monthly with the exception of April which is a digital issue by Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, 88 Pine St. 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10005. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and Additional mailing offices.

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2 Marine Log // January 2021

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Heather Ervin hervin@sbpub.com

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INLAND WATERWAYS

O

n December 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 with a historic win for the inland waterways. WRDA 2020— passed as part of a Omnibus Appropriations and COVID-19 relief package—included WCI’s top priority to adjust the cost-share for construction and major rehabilitation of inland waterways projects from 50% Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF)/50% General Revenues to 35% IWTF/65% General Revenues for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 through FY 2031. Projects whose construction starts between FY21-FY31, and for the duration of that project’s construction, will operate under the adjusted 35%/65% cost-share.

The Senate also passed the bill on December 21 by a vote of 92 to 6.

The WRDA bill also included a 902 cost-limit increase for Kentucky Lock and a Chief ’s Report authorization for the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway—Brazos River Floodgates and Colorado locks. The costlimit increase allows work on Kentucky Lock to continue to completion, and the Chief ’s Report allows construction of new sector gates and channel widening to provide for more safe and efficient navigation. It will also improve water and sediment management capabilities on the Brazos River.

Particularly in a difficult COVID-19 environment, the passage of WRDA was a very significant win for the efficient modernization of the inland waterways system, potentially providing more than $1 billion in additional construction funds over 10 years that should help dramatically reduce the backlog of authorized projects.

4 Marine Log // January 2021

WRDA 2020 was a rider on the Omnibus Appropriations bill that included $900 billion for COVID-19 related funding that was negotiated for months before its passage. The Omnibus also included the FY21 Energy & Water Development (E&WD) appropriations bill that funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The effciencies that will be gained by this WRDA 2020 construction costshare policy change, achieved in such a difficult economic landscape, represents a historic win for WCI. FY21 funding for the Corps is $7.8 billion, an increase of $145 million above the FY20 level and $1.8 billion above the Administration’s FY21 budget request.

Funding for the Investigations account is $153 million, an increase of $2 million above FY20’s level and $50.4 million above the president’s request.

The Construction account received $2.69 billion, an increase of $11.6 million above FY20’s funding level and $519.4 million

above the FY21 Administration request.

With $113 million appropriated from the IWTF for FY21, a construction program of at least $322 million will be possible. This provides the opportunity to fund Chickamauga Lock to completion, efficiently funding continuation of Kentucky Lock, and start a new waterways modernization project.

The FY21 funding measure also provided for nine new study starts and seven total new construction starts across the Corps’ Civil Works mission. For the first time since 2004, one of the new starts must be for inland waterways lock and dam modernization.

The Corps FY21 Work Plan, which typically comes out 60 days after enactment of the appropriations bill, will detail which specific project is selected for the new start.

Operations and Maintenance received $3.85 billion, an increase of $59.7 million above FY20’s appropriated amount and $1.8 billion above the FY21 budget request.

No new inland waterways user fees or taxes were included in the bill.

WCI strongly praised WRDA’s passage on a biennial schedule, as well as hailed the strong E&WD appropriations funding for the Corps for FY21, achieved in an extremely difficult economic period.

The efficiencies that will be gained by this WRDA 2020 construction cost-share policy change, achieved in such a difficult economic landscape, represents a historic win for WCI. Coupled with the strong FY21 funding for the Corps, 2020 ended on a high note.

As WCI’s new president and CEO, I remain proud of our strategic vision and hard work to stay the course to significantly improve navigation projects’ funding mechanism and to increase annual funding for critical lock and dam infrastructure improvements. WCI’s members were strident in their support for this victory, and the credit also goes to them.

Through strong teamwork and perseverance, the inland waterways industry and WCI’s members in particular can look forward to a much better year in 2021.

TRACY R. ZEA

President/CEO, Waterways Council Inc.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Felix Mizioznikov

Ending a Challenging Year on a Good Note

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

The EU Controlled Shipping Fleet in Numbers WELCOME TO INDUSTRY INSIGHTS, Marine Log’s quick snapshot of current trends in the global marine marketplace.

This month, we look at the European Union shipping industry ahead of SMM Digital taking place February 2 through 5.

Earlier in 2020, the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) released a report titled “The Economic Value of the EU Shipping Industry, 2020” based on data presented by Oxford Economics.

The report states that the EU shipping industry directly employed 685,000 people and supported a contribution GDP of nearly 54 billion (US$66.3 billion) during 2018, while the total GDP contribution of the industry, including supply chain and worker spending impacts, is estimated to have been 149 billion (US$183 billion) for that year.

Here are a few highlights from the report:

810 MILLION

51.7% GROWTH IN EU FLEET* 2010-2020 VERSUS 57.6% FOR THE WORLD FLEET

DEADWEIGHT TONNES

* BY GROSS TONNAGE

39.5% OF THE 2020 WORLD FLEET*

550 MILLION

23,400 VESSELS

GROSS TONNES

8.5 7.0 5.5

4.8

4.5

4.2

3.6

ANNUAL GROWTH IN FLEET SIZE*

2.9

2.3

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2.2

2.8

2018 2019 2020

Source: European Community Shipowners’ Associations, based on the presentation prepared by Oxford Economics

6 Marine Log // January 2021

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WELLNESS COLUMN

What to Know When Considering the COVID-19 Vaccine thus far approved have received rigorous and transparent scientific scrutiny by an independent panel of experts before being approved by the CDC.

A

s the day nears when individuals will make a decision to vaccinate against COVID-19 or not, a few considerations or reconsiderations may be warranted. I thought it might be a good time to review some history and hot topics surrounding vaccination.

The goal of a vaccine is to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that help the body fight future infection from the vaccinated disease. The majority of vaccines given worldwide go into the arms and legs of hundreds of millions of children annually.

Vaccines have a long history of safety and effectiveness dating back to the late 1700s. It is an old and still evolving medial science.

The first crude vaccination was given to an 8-year-old child back in 1796 for smallpox. By the mid-1900s, we had vaccines for crippling and deadly diseases like polio and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR). By the 1980s, the smallpox vaccine did its job so well that the disease was eradicated and vaccination against smallpox in the U.S. was no longer routine. The effectiveness of vaccines has led to some people believing that because a disease is now rare in their environment, the risk of contracting it is slight. They do not appreciate that it is the vaccination of many people that decreases and ultimately eliminates the risk.

Vaccine Content Concerns Concerns over vaccine content are one reason some people abstain from vaccination.

Chemicals and metals are added to help the vaccine’s stability and viability. There are three that seem to top the concern list. Among the most controversial additions is thimerosal.

8 Marine Log // January 2021

This is a mercury additive that helps reduce bacterial growth in multi-dose vials. Thimerosal is one of two prominent mercury exposures around us: methylmercury and ethylmercury. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, which is believed to clear the body more effectively then methylmercury that is found in some fish. There is no doubt that mercury is toxic to the human body, but thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines by 2001 due to concerns from the medical community. It is still prevalent in vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, however. Pharmaceutical companies do make a thimerosal-free version that can be requested for those concerned.

Aluminum is another hotly contested addition to vaccines and is routinely used. It supports absorption of the vaccine into the body. The controversy here is the potential deterioration of the central nervous system from over exposure. Here is the rub, though.

It is in your kitchen, too. It’s found in cooking foil and cookware. It’s also found in your bathroom in the form of deodorant and makeup, and it’s even found in your baby’s formula. Aluminum exposure is everywhere.

Reducing or offsetting increased loads is worthwhile. Mindful buying of aluminumfree products can reduce the load.

Formaldehyde is also a hot topic when it comes to vaccines. Its important to note that most single-does vaccine quantities are comparable to those naturally occurring in the body and present in the environment.

So, why are some so skeptical about the COVID-19 vaccine? Lack of trust appears to be the main factor. But while there is little easily available public information about what is in the vaccines right now, both vaccines

The medical cases of vaccines gone wrong are not hidden and are small compared to the number of vaccines given. They are well documented on the Center for Disease Control website for open review. The last recall was in 2013 and there were no health effects reported due to the error. There are vaccines that have side effects, including those that may raise risk of other diseases. Like everything, they require an individual decision on risk tolerance if taking them. This is always a good conversation to talk through with a doctor.

One of the most fascinating things about some modern vaccines is that they are so technologically new that it’s similar to when our industry made the move from sail to steam. They work by instructing cells to start making proteins found surrounding the virus, so the immune system can recognize and fight the invaders. With the COVID19 vaccine, it is the first time we have seen this cutting-edge technology in a vaccine (although it is not new to medical science).

Trials and approvals so far have been positive and very effective. No doubt that fighting this pandemic will pave the way for many new discoveries and changes in how vaccines and diseases are treated in years come. For the skeptical, it may warrant thinking outside the box a bit.

“We have to get over this false notion that COVID-19 vaccines were developed over a period of a few months,” says Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “In fact, this is a 17-year vaccine research and development program that began after the first SARS epidemic in China and Canada in 2003. That’s when our scientific community first began making prototype coronavirus vaccines.”

EMILY REIBLEIN

Director-Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Crowley Logistics

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ hedgehog94

Potential Risk

VESSEL OF THE MONTH

Grain Express

Photo Credit: Master Marine

R

ecently delivered by Master Marine Inc., Bayou La Batre, Ala., the 67- by 20-foot M/V Grain Express is the second of four vessels that the shipyard is scheduled to deliver to LaPlace, La.-based Cooper Group company Plimsoll Marine, one of the Lower Mississippi River’s leading push boat operators. The four state-of-theart vessels have been designed by Entech Designs LLC and are fully compliant with all U.S. Coast Guard regulatory requirements.

“Plimsoll Marine’s goal is to provide the Lower Mississippi River with premier push boat services and the delivery of the Grain Express marks yet another milestone in our effort to build and maintain the industry’s most modern fleet of push boats,” said Angus Cooper III, president of Cooper/T. Smith. “We look forward to operating all four of these new vessels, including the Grain Express, at Cooper Consolidated’s midstream terminals and barge fleets.”

“C ooper C onsol id ated ’s cu stomers expect the safest, most efficient, and reliable operations, and Plimsoll’s first-class team

Latest in Series of State-of-Art Towboats for Plimsoll Marine

and state-of-the-art vessels best ensure we are consistently exceeding the expectations of our customers,” said Karl Gonzales, vice president of Plimsoll Marine.

Specifications The towboat is powered by two Laborde Products Inc. Mitsubishi 803 HP Tier III diesel engines operating at 1,400 RPM and coupled to Twin Disc 5321 gears. Laborde Products also supplied the vessel’s two Northern Lights 65 kW Tier III electronic controlled gensets. The vessel is fitted with RW Fernstrum Inc. keel coolers throughout.

A pair of Sound Propeller Services Inc. 70- by 48- by 7-inch four-blade stainless steel propellers provides thrust, driven via two J & S Machine Works Inc. 7-inch propeller shafts with all Thordon Bearings, Thorplas bushings and shaft seals.

R IO C ont r o l s a n d Hyd r au l i c I n c . suppl ie d t he s te er i ng s y s tem for t he towboat’s t wo ma in r udders a nd four f lanking rudders.

Gulf Coast Air & Hydraulics Inc. provided a pair of Quincy reciprocating air

compressors and ventilation fans.

Schuyler Maritime LLC supplied all 18by 12-inch rubber fendering around the perimeter of the vessel and push knees.

R.S. Price & Son provided a Carrier mini-split HVAC system in all interior spaces with Blakeney Marine providing all custom woodwork and interior finishes.

Donavon Marine supplied the large Bomar aluminum windows and Dales Welding and Fabricators LLC provided the aluminum exterior doors.

Wintech International LLC supplied a pair of 40-ton deck winches and New World Inc. provided all electronics and communications, with an alarm system from Unlimited Control & Supply Inc. E ac h of t he fou r tow b oat s h a s t he capacity for 10,400 gallons of fuel, 4,359 gallons of potable water and 9,500 gallons of ballast water. The maximum working draft is 7 feet, 9 inches.

E ach ve s sel i s out f it ted w it h t h ree crew staterooms housing six crewmembers , one a nd a ha l f bat h s a nd a f u l l galley arrangement.

January 2021 // Marine Log 9

UPDATE

RICHMOND, VA., headquartered Domin-

ion Energy last month reached a major milestone—the keel laying—in the construction of the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV). In a ceremony at the Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, fabrications from the first steel were laid to form the first part of the keel—the bottom-most central steel structural beam on a vessel.

The vessel’s hull and infrastructure will utilize more than 14,000 tons of domestic steel, with nearly 10,000 tons sourced from Alabama and West Virginia suppliers. The vessel’s hull has a length of 472 feet, a width of 184 feet and a depth of 38 feet, making it one of the biggest vessels of its kind in the world. It has accommodations for up to 119 people. The vessel is designed to handle current turbine technologies as well as next generation turbine sizes of 12 megawatt or larger and will also be capable of the installation of foundations for turbines and other heavy lifts.

$500 Million Project Cost The overall project cost, inclusive of construction and commissioning and excluding financing costs, is estimated to be around $500 million. Financing for the vessel has been arranged through a lease financing agreement with leading global banks.

Construction of the vessel is expected to create nearly 700 direct construction jobs. Once complete, it will be based out of Hampton Roads, Va., with a U.S. crew.

10 Marine Log // January 2021

Once constructed, the vessel will be available for charter hire, including by Dominion Energy Virginia, subject to the approval of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, in connection with the installation of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project.

Keppel AMFELS is responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of the vessel, which has been designed

by GustoMSC, a business unit within NOV. Schiedman, Netherlands, headquartered Huisman will deliver the vessel’s 2,200-metric-ton lift capacity leg-encircling crane, which, with its lift capacity, lightweight design, 130 meter long boom and compact house, will be able to handle the installation of next generation offshore wind turbines and foundations.

U.K.-based jack-up vessel operator Seajacks is assisting Dominion Energy with construction and operation oversight for the WITV project and Huisman will implement the same technology for the Dominion vessel that it used for the leg-encircling crane on Seajacks’ offshore wind installation vessel Scylla.

“This is a monumental step for the offshore wind industry in America,” said Robert Blue, Dominion Energy’s president and CEO. “Dominion Energy is proud to be leading a consortium of respected industry participants in the construction of the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, which will provide significant American jobs, and provide a reliable,

home-grown installation solution with the capacity to handle the next generation of large-scale, highly-efficient turbine technologies. This will better enable the offshore wind industry to bring clean, renewable energy to customers in the U.S.” “We are pleased to be able to build the largest wind turbine installation vessel in the U.S. for Dominion Energy and support the growing offshore wind industry,” said Mohamed Sahlan, president of Keppel AmFELS. “Keppel AmFELS has a solid track record and capabilities in a wide range of offshore vessels and we are also able to leverage the experience of our parent company, Keppel O&M, in offshore renewables to provide a compelling construction solution for this milestone project. Supported by our highly-skilled local workforce, state-of-theart equipment and reliable suppliers across the U.S., we are confident of delivering a high-quality vessel to Dominion Energy safely, cost-effectively and on time.”

The two turbine, 12-megawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project, located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, is currently energized and operational while awaiting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) final technical review. Ocean surveys and geotechnical work are also underway for the 2,640-megawatt full scale CVOW commercial project, which will be located in a lease area adjacent to the pilot project. These surveys will support the development of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan.

Photo Credit: Dominion Energy

Keppel AMFELS Lays Keel for First Jones Act WTIV

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From blue to brown water, domestic to international news, vessel design, operation and construction in the commercial, naval and government sectors, Marine Log offers whole market coverage in one magazine.

Update

Interlake Buys an ATB and a Historic Ferry

Middleburg Heights, Ohio, head-

quartered Interlake Holding Company has purchased the assets of Pere Marquette Shipping Company and Lake Michigan Car Ferry Company in an acquisition that includes two working Great Lakes vessels, the articulated tug-barge (ATB) Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 and the S.S. Badger, a historic passenger-and-car ferry that is the last coal-burning steamship in

the United States.

The acquisition signals the creation of a new business entity, Interlake Maritime Services, which will manage the new businesses along with the Interlake Steamship Company and its fleet of nine freighters.

Interlake says the ATB Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 is a workhorse on the Lakes carrying a variety of cargoes that traditional self-unloaders cannot, such as large

armor stone for break walls, pig iron, scrap and other miscellaneous materials.

“We are adding capacity and assets in areas that our customers have identified a need for,” says Mark Barker, president of Interlake Holding. “This is a market we have been looking at for some time and this strategic acquisition will allow us to participate in it with a proven asset and a respected customer base. We look forward to working with them and building on the strong relationships that the previous owners and management have developed.”

While a car ferr y may seem like an unusual asset for a fleet of Great Lakes selfunloading vessels, the Barker/Tregurtha families who own Interlake Holding also own Seastreak, a fleet of high-speed passenger ferries that operate in New York Harbor and from various other locations on the east coast including New Bedford, Mass.

In recognition of its heritage and its significance on the Great Lakes, the S.S. Badger has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Entering service in 1953 it served as a rail car ferry until 1990 when it was laid up for a year before being purchased and converted into a car ferry.

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Photo Credit: Interlake Holdings

GLOBAL LEADERS IN WORKBOAT AND PASSENGER VESSEL DESIGN

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Key Maritime Legislation Survives Veto Threats

F

or the U.S. maritime industry, the 2020 legislative year did not end until January 1, 2021. That’s when the Senate held a session at which it completed, by a vote of 81 to 13, the final step in the process required to enact the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021 despite a veto by the president.

The veto override brought a collective sigh of relief from maritime interests. It came within days of the signing into law by the president (after a veto threat) of an omnibus spending bill onto which had been tacked the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (WRDA). There is much more on the significance of that measure in this month’s Inland Waterways column on page 4.

In addition to the WRDA, the omnibus bill included funding for a number of departments that included Department of Homeland Security funding for four more Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (FRC) that will allow Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La., to build and deliver a further four FRCs to the U.S. Coast Guard and increases the total number of funded FRC vessels to 64.

The NDAA is also somewhat of an omnibus measure in that tacked onto it was funding for the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) that brought good news to Philly Shipyard and the Texas A&M Maritime Academy in the shape of $390 million to fund construction of a fourth National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV).

Also tacked on was the Coast Guard Authorization Act for 2020, which reauthorizes the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Maritime Commission for FY2020-FY2021, and authorizes a specified level of end-of-year strength for active duty personnel and military training student loads to the Coast Guard for those fiscal years.

To many, including the American Maritime Partnership (AMP), one of the most significant provisions in

the NDAA is one confirming that all American laws, including the Jones Act, apply to renewable energy development on America’s Outer Continental Shelf. By eliminating uncertainty over this issue, says AMP, Congress will help unleash robust investment and job creation in the American maritime industry tied to clean offshore energy development.

The NDAA also clarifies the terms and procedures that apply in those circumstances under which an emergency administrative Jones Act waiver can be issued. In particular, a national defense waiver must be tied to a legitimate national defense need, non-defense waivers

promote a strong domestic maritime industry, which supports the national security and economic vitality of the United States and the efficient operation of the United States transportation system; and a strong commercial maritime industry makes the United States more secure (Sec. 3522).”

“It is the Sense of Congress that the maritime industry of the United States contributes to the Nation’s economic prosperity and national security (Sec. 8403).”

Other provisions in the bill also advance the interests of American maritime, including one clarifying the coastwise eligibility of existing LNG tankers for domestic trades.

Looking Ahead ... And a Blast From the Past

Other provisions in the [NDAA] also advance the interests of American maritime, including one clarifying the coastwise eligibility of existing LNG tankers for domestic trades.

will be time-limited, and all waivers will now be subject to public reporting requirements by any foreign vessel using the waiver to operate in American domestic markets.

A d d i t i o n a l l y, n o t e s A M P, t w o separate “Sense of Congress” statements reaffirm strong congressional support for the American maritime industry and for the Jones Act. The two “Sense of Congress” statements included in the NDAA provide as follows: “It is the Sense of Congress that United States coastwise trade laws

As this was written, Washington was in the midst of more than the usual chaos that accompanies a transition. Still, with a new administration coming in, people in places such as the government relations departments of major shipyards and marine industry trade associations were starting to look to see who would be likely to be doing what both in the administration and on various House and Senate committees and subcommittees.

A large part of what those industry trade associations do in the course of business is bestow accolades on those in Congress who help advance maritime interests. One congressman who got his fair share of such industry accolades was Duncan Hunter who served as a U.S. Representative for California’s 50th congressional district from 2013 to 2020 and who was a former Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

In December 2019, Hunter pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds and was sentenced to 11 months in prison. On December 22, 2020, President Trump granted him a full pardon. It wasn’t exactly a get out of jail free card as Hunter had yet to start serving his sentence.

January 2021 // Marine Log 13

SHIPBUILDING EUROPEAN MARITIME Ports like this one are looking for ways to save money while implementing greener solutions into their operations.

EUROPEAN MARITIME LOOKS BEYOND A CHALLENGING YEAR

14 Marine Log // January 2021

also wanted to see an Ocean Fund set up to help ships become more energy efficient.

At a plenary session in Brussels, the parliament voted 520 to 94 (w ith 77 abstentions) in favor of the European Commission’s proposal to revise the EU system for monitoring, reporting and verifying CO2 emissions from maritime transport (the “EU MRV Regulation”).

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) largely agree that reporting obligations by the EU and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) should be aligned, as proposed by the commission, said a press release issued by the parliament back in September.

“They note, however, that the IMO has made insufficient progress in reaching an ambitious global agreement on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” said the release.

“They ask the commission to examine the overall environmental integrity of the measures decided by the IMO, including the targets under the Paris Agreement. A global

ambitious agreement on GHG emissions from shipping is urgently needed, they add.”

The Parliament wants maritime transport to be more ambitious and believes ships of 5,000 gross tonnage and above should be included in the EU ETS. However, MEPs say that market-based emissions reduction policies are not enough and request that shipping companies reduce their annual average CO2 emissions per transport unit for all their ships by at least 40% by 2030.

MEPs call for an “Ocean Fund” for the period from 2022 to 2030, financed by revenues from auctioning allowances under the ETS, to make ships more energy-efficient and to support investment in innovative technologies and infrastructure, such as alternative fuel and green ports. And 20% of the revenues under the fund should be used to contribute to protecting, restoring and efficiently managing marine ecosystems impacted by global warming.

“Today, we are sending a strong signal in

Photo Credit: Midstream Lighting

T

raditionally, the SMM event i n Ha m b u r g h a s b e e n t h e world—and particularly European—showcase for the latest developments in marine technology. Its sheer size has made it an event not for the faint of feet as visitors trekked through hall after hall of hardware. Not this year. COVID-19 has changed all that. What it hasn’t changed is the fact that Europe remains a leading center of technological innovation, especially where environmental concerns lie.

What’s more controversial is that moves by the EU to require all ships calling EU ports to meet EU environmental regulations, regardless of what flags they fly, could threaten efforts at the International Maritime Organization to bring in a workable framework for global shipping decarbonization.

A few months ago, the European Parliament voted to include CO2 emissions from the shipping sector in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The parliament said that it

By Heather Ervin, Editor in Chief

EUROPEAN MARITIME line with the European Green Deal and the climate emergency: Monitoring and reporting CO2 emissions is important, but statistics alone do not save a single gram of greenhouse gas,” said Rapporteur Jutta Paulus (Greens/ EFA). That’s why we are going further than the Commission proposal and demanding tougher measures to reduce emissions from maritime shipping.”

Two months later in November, the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC75) gave preliminary approval to the compromise agreement for the package of technical and operational measures to address GHG from ships in the short run.

T h e a g re e d p a ck a g e co m b i n e s t h e introduction of the Energy Efficiency Existing Ships Index (EEXI), the Carbon Intensity Indicators (CII) operational measure, the Carbon Intensity rating mechanism, as well as the strengthening of the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) framework.

That all fell short of what environmentalists, in Europe and elsewhere, have been pressing for and did nothing to lessen the likelihood of shipping being subject to the EU carbon trading system.

Photo Credit: Østensjø Rederi

Wärtsilä Hybrid Upgrades Two Vessels What’s interesting is the extent to which useful advances in greening shipping operations are being funded by either national or EU programs.

For example, funding from Enova, the Norwegian government enterprise that promotes the environmentally friendly production and consumption of energy, has been an important contribution a recent project that will see Finland-based Wärtsilä retrofit its Hybrid Upgrade solution to two offshore construction vessels owned by Norwegian operator Østensjø Rederi. The upgrading project will allow less use of the ships’ engines with correspondingly lower levels of exhaust emissions while operating in dynamic positioning (DP) mode, and will also lower emission levels in all other operational modes. The order with the technology group Wärtsilä was placed in the third quarter of 2020.

The two ships, the Edda Fauna and Edda Flora, were built in 2008. The customer opted for the Wär tsilä Hybrid Upgrade solution in order to give the ships a more attractive env ironmental profile for potential charterers. The Wärtsilä Hybrid Upgrade solution will include the company’s new electronic DC bus-link, which allows a vessel to operate in DP 2 and 3 modes with a closed

DC bus in hybrid, and an open bus on the AC system. The reduced running of the engines saves fuel and lessens the carbon footprint, while engine maintenance requirements are also alleviated.

Delivery of the Wärtsilä equipment to both vessels is planned for this month.

Projects such as this from leading European companies are well documented almost everyday on www.marinelog.com and almost every month in our Tech News section. But vessels themselves are just a part of the picture.

European Ports and Terminals Ports and terminals have their own environmental hurdles to overcome in Europe.

The greening of shipping is the priority for European ports, according to the European Sea Ports Organization (ESPO). Whereas this is in the first place the responsibility of the shipping sector, ports can be a key strategic partner in helping shipping decarbonize, and in delivering on ambitions on the international and European level.

To this end, says ESPO, links need to be made with the ship-shore interface and the bunkering of low- and zero-carbon fuels in particular, and funding allocated to research supporting innovation in bunkering of those fuels. At the same time, ports themselves remain committed to greening their own fleets and operations within their own remit.

Mark Nailer, maritime manager EMEA, Midstream Lighting in London, recently told us about lighting improvements at ports—an sometimes-overlooked piece of technology

that once modified could save ports money and expend less energy.

“2020 saw global environmental targets, coupled with economic turmoil, change the value placed by European port and terminal operators on their investment in new technologies, as saving energy, increasing productivity and cutting costs are all prioritized,” says Nailer. “In Europe, in particular, the environmental argument, including the carbon footprint of port operations, has grown in the public consciousness.”

Nailer says that port and terminal automation has begun to grow in uptake and significance, as many understand the need to invest now if they are to increase energy savings in the long term.

The company recently worked on a project at the Port of Venice, the eighth busiest commercial port in the country and is one of the most important in the Mediterranean for the cruise sector, and also at Denmark’s largest commercial port, the Port of Aarhus. Its six terminals serve container, multi, bulk, tanker, ferry, and cruise shipping. And it handles everything from coal to windmills, plus over 2 million ferry passengers a year.

Both ports required new or upgraded lighting systems to facilitate better cargo loading and unloading operations tha t woul d a l s o c ut dow n on energ y costs and output.

“From Aarhus to Venice, 2021 is likely to see an acceleration in port and terminal investment as owners re-evaluate what they need to do to build maritime hubs that are truly environmentally and commercially feasible.

The Edda Fauna will benefit from the Wärtsilä Hybrid Upgrade solution through reduced fuel consumption and lower emission levels.

January 2021 // Marine Log 15

SHIPBUILDING

T

o the horror of naval architects, no doubt, hulls can be considered as essentially envelopes that contain the vessel’s payload and the systems and machinery necessary to push that payload through the water. Successful shipbuilding depends on having a reliable infrastructure of suppliers who can not only provide these things but also back them up with a very broad range of support. This will start at the design stage, continue through construction, and then transition into support throughout the vessel’s working life. And, in these days of “green

16 Marine Log // January 2021

passports,” it will also provide for what happens when a vessel is finally recycled.

A healthy shipbuilding industry depends on having a robust and healthy supplier base. How does the U.S. stack up on this?

From the shipbuilding perspective, the answer would seem to be “pretty well.” From the supplier viewpoint, it’s a little more complex than that. There’s a tension here between shipbuilders’ desires to be able to buy the best equipment available worldwide at the best price and the need to maintain a healthy U.S. domestic manufacturing base.

The American Shipbuilding Suppliers

Association (ASSA), which advocates for U.S. marine equipment manufacturers, has long been pushing for enhanced U.S. content requirements.

By law, U.S. Navy ships are required to be built in U.S. shipyards. However, says ASSA, “there is no such requirement for critical Hull, Mechanical & Electrical (HM&E) components—propulsion systems, machinery control systems, shafts, bearings, ships service power generation and many others—to be manufactured in the U.S.” ASSA’s position is that congressional direction is needed for components for all

Photo Credit: MARAD

SHIPBUILDING: SUCCESS IS ALL ABOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN

SHIPBUILDING is how the Department of Defense collects and analyzes information related to domestic source content of major defense acquisition prog r ams. The conferees also make clear that supply chain security remains a matter of concern and the conference report directs the Secretary of Defense “to ensure the collection and analysis of information related to sourcing of individual acquisition programs.”

Government Orders Showcase U.S. Supplier Base Strengths

National Security Multi Mission Vessel incorporates a broad range of U.S. materials and equipment.

Navy surface ships and unmanned vessels to be required to be designed, engineered, manufactured and assembled in the U.S. That message has not gone unheard in Congress and the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act contained language that would provide further direction for the Department of Defense in implementing “Buy American” requirements for major defense acquisition programs.

The Senate version included no such provision and, in conference, the House receded. The conference report underscores that one of the matters at issue here

While congressional requirements for more extensive use of U.S. built components remains a work in progress, the fact is that recent government-ordered ships already showcase the breadth of domestic supplier capabilities. The National Security MultiMission Vessels (NSMVs) on order at Philly Shipyard are demonstrating this.

As part of the contract, Philly Shipyard will be working with domestic mills to supply steel for the vessels and U.S. manufacturers to provide key ship equipment.

The diesel-electric ships will each have four Wabtec 16V250 Series main engines divided between two enginerooms. The Wabtec engines, which meet EPA Tier 4 emission standards without using ureabased after-treatment will be integrated into generator sets by Cummins. Meantime GE’s Power Conversion business has been awarded a contract to that includes the integration of the diesel engines, generators, switchboards, transformers, main propulsion drives, propulsion motors, and auxiliary support systems.

A Navy program that illustrates the depth of U.S. supplier base capabilities is the Constellation (FFG-2) class frigate, formerly designated as the FFG (X) class.

The frigates, on order at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, use the Italian/ French FREMM multipurpose frigate as the parent class design. Though different in a number of ways from the parent craft, the FFG 62 class (formerly FFG (X)) frigates will use the same power dense GE LM2500+G4 gas turbine as the Italian Navy Carlos Bergamini class FREMM frigates in a Combined Diesel Electric And Gas turbine (CODLAG) propulsion system.

The LM2500+G4 will be supplied in GE’s state-of-the-art composite gas turbine module and, while it will be made in the U.S. at GE’s manufacturing facility in Evendale, Ohio, the FFG-62 will mark its initial U.S. Navy use.

Taking another look into the conference report on the 2021 NDAA, the conferees noted that the FFG-62’s “complex Combined Diesel Electric and Gas Hull, Mechanical and

Electrical (HM&E) drive train has not previously been used on U.S. Navy ships.”

Taking of initial problems both The note 228-passenger Scenicwith Eclipse, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) classes, the conset to debut in 2018, will be built at ferees Uljanik said they believe many of these LCS in Croatia and feature two engineering failures would have been discov3MW Azipods from ABB ered, analyzed, and corrected faster with less negative operational impact had the Navy established a LCS land based engineering and test site (LBETS) for the ships.

Accordingly, the NDAA requires the Secretary of the Navy to establish a Constellation class LBETS as soon as possible.

The primary objectives of the LBETS will be to demonstrate across the full range of engineering plant operations: (1) Test of the full propulsion drive train; (2) Test and facilitation of machinery control systems integration; and (3) Simulation of the full range of electrical demands to enable the investigation of load dynamics between the HM&E equipment, combat system, and auxiliary equipment.

The provision directs the secretary to commence full-scale LBETS testing prior to delivery of the first Constellation class frigate and completes the test program not later than the date FFG-62 is scheduled to be available for tasking.

None of this implies any lack of faith in the individual U.S. components in FFG62, but it does underscore something that’s important in any size vessel: ensuring that its multiple elements work together as a system.

Not all of the supplier contracts for the FFG-62 have yet be concerned, but nobody is likely to fall over in astonishment when they learn where the diesels and gears come from.

Meantime, one key propulsion contract that has been announced is with Thrustmaster of Texas Inc. and covers the design, development and manufacture of the frigate’s auxiliary propulsion unit (APU) on the U.S. Navy’s future FFG-62 guided missile frigate, now known as the Constellation class.

Thrustmaster will be supplying the complete APU package consisting of the 1 MW retractable azimuthing thruster, controls, prime mover electric motor, variable frequency drive and steering and retraction power unit. The APU package will be designed and built to MIL-STD-901E Grade-A shock qualification.

Thrustmaster’s auxiliary propulsion unit is designed and manufactured at Thrustmaster’s Houston, Texas facility.

This new contract provides long term job stability for Thrustmaster’s 130 employees and Thrustmaster says its “selection represents a strong reinvestment in and commitment to the American industrial January 2021 // Marine Log 17

SHIPBUILDING manufacturing base by the U.S. Navy and Fincantieri Marinette Marine.”

Putting the Pieces Together While builders of complex militar y ships may have the luxury of having “systems integrators” to make sure that all the bits and pieces work together, in the more every day world of yards that build smaller vessels such as towboats and ferries, that task falls on the shipyard or the naval architect. What helps, too, is that yards build up networks of trusted suppliers, with many of the relationships spanning several generations. Equally important, those suppliers know each other.

Take a look at the towboat featured as this month’s “Vessel of the Month,” there are no names on the supplier list that are not familiar to regular Marine Log readers. It’s not by accident that names like R.W. Fernstrum, to name just one example, have achieved that degree of familiarity. It’s been earned.

Another factor at play here is that the right equipment choice for many builds in this market may come from an international manufacturer. Yards expect that

In 2020, Laborde was named the Mitsubishi Marine Engine distributor for the East Coast of the U.S., in addition to its long-standing role as the distributor of engines for the Gulf Coast, Inland Rivers and Great Lakes regions. The Laborde Products team is set to expand the scope of its Mitsubishi Mar ine Business to include the East Coast states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Laborde plans to deploy a similar strategy of customer partnership, direct support and an extensive dealer network throughout the East Coast states to continue their growth of the Mitsubishi Marine Brand.

“We are a very hands on company and expect to know the operators who are running our engines throughout the country,” said Brian Laborde, president of Laborde Products. “We expect to be involved with our operators throughout the entire life of the engine and deliver value at every stage.”

Laborde Products is a commercial engine

Thrustmaster’s auxiliary propulsion unit is designed and manufactured at its Houston, Texas, facility.

German gearbox manufacturer Reintjes, later adding Finland’s Steerprop azimuthing thrusters to its portfolio. Among the vessels equipped with Steerprop solutions

One thing that emerges from looking at the role of the supplier in the shipbuilding business is that, however much high tech equipment goes into that envelope we talked about in our opening paragraph, making sure the envelope gets pack as intended still depends a great deal on human relationships and trust.

18 Marine Log // January 2021

distribution company specializing in the commercial marine and industrial markets.

Laborde is the distributor for Mitsubishi, Scania, FPT, Yanmar, Hatz, and Steyr engines. Laborde provides service, training, and parts support from their offices in Covington, Louisiana and Houston, Texas, with a network of strategic service dealers located throughout the U.S. to support operators wherever they are needed.

Another familiar name to regular readers will be Karl Senner LLC. Underscoring the importance of ongoing relationships in the marine market, the company, which was established by Karl H. Senner in 1972, is now owned and operated by his son, Ralph Senner, and grandsons, Karl and Christopher Senner. The company initially started as sales and services distributor for

were a number of diesel electric vessels on which it worked side-by-side with EPD (Electronic Power Design) Electrical Systems. This collaborative partnership led to becoming the North American marine representative for EPD in 2015.

People Build Ships One thing that emerges from looking at the role of the supplier in the shipbuilding business is that, however much high tech equipment goes into that envelope we talked about in our opening paragraph, making sure that the envelope gets packed as intended still depends a great deal on human relationship and trust. Somehow, despite pandemics and other problems, the American industry still seems to be flourishing on that score.

Photo Credit: Thrustmaster of Texas

equipment to be supplied to them through a local agent or distributor who can back it with a factory-level of expertise on installation and then, after delivery of the vessel, give the shipyard’s customer, the operator, the assurance of through-life support in terms of maintenance and support. So, the distributor’s skill set may need to include a measure of international diplomacy.

Covington, La., based Laborde Products, which continues to win customers who appreciate the mechanically controlled Mitsubishi engine and Laborde’s dedication to developing partnerships with its operators to maximize the life of the engines while minimizing operating cost. Laborde’s commitment to service and support of its engines has fueled the growth and expansion of the Mitsubishi brand over the last 20 years.

TECH SPOTLIGHT

MINING THE NEW GOLD:

FLEET DATA Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Igor Kardasov

W

hether you’re operating tankers and bulk carriers on international routes or towboats and barges on the Mississippi River, one thing is certain: You operate in a competitive environment where you can’t afford to lose any edge and where a host of regulators are dogging your every move. In response, managers of fleets of all kinds and sizes are increasingly looking to sophisticated software solutions to help them.

In the deep-sea market, Italy’s d’Amico Società di Navigazione recently selected ABS Nautical Systems (ABS NS) to implement NS Enterprise, a leading fleet management software systems for digital maritime operations, across its entire fleet of some 70 vessels.

ABS NS and d’Amico Group will work together to replace the shipowner’s existing

legacy software, driving digital transformation throughout its organization and across its marine assets. This transition to datadriven and reliability-based software, says ABS NS, will support faster, more accurate decision making for improved compliance and safety across all shipping operations.

Comprised of software modules, mobile applications and enterprise asset management services, NS Enterprise is an integrated digital platform that allows vessel owners and operators to increase the productivity of their operations and optimize performance.

“We look forward to partnering with d’Amico Group to support their digital journey,” says Evan Gooch, president of ABS Nautical Systems. “Our NS Enterprise software is designed around the needs of the mariner, and we are focused on helping clients with improved access and visibility to

their data to meet critical operational and compliance challenges. We will work together to administer new technology and innovation that increases efficiency and reliability—an objective very important to d’Amico Group and their clients.”

“As a world leader in maritime transportation, we are constantly focused on the quality of ship management. Excellence and reliability are crucial in our business and for our top clients,” says Cesare d’Api, Deputy Technical Director of d’Amico Società di Navigazione. “In line with our mission, we are constantly looking at the opportunities offered by the application of digital technologies and sharp analytics tools in maritime transportation. Such growing trends in digitalization and mobile applications have clearly highlighted the need to move toward a change of tools for January 2021 // Marine Log 19

TECH SPOTLIGHT

fleet management in order to exploit the value of data and information as assets. A data dashboards driven business model is a smart and practical way to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our maintenance processes.”

Data is the New Gold “Data is the new gold for ship managers,” says Alexander Buchmann, managing director of Hamburg-based Hanseaticsoft.

“However, data needs to be managed efficiently and analyzed in a structured way so that businesses can clearly interpret it to make insight-driven decisions to achieve their goals and objectives.”

Buchmann has been helping operators mine that gold for some ten years now, starting Hanseaticsoft when “digitalization” was not a word on every lip in the maritime sector.

“Thinking back 10 years, even though other industries were more and more relying on software to manage processes, there was very little available in the maritime industry,” says Buchmann. “There had been one or two vendors already, but their offerings were only specially geared for specific departments and also acted as data silos—and that’s why most companies still used pen and paper or Excel-lists to manage their work. Working in a shipping company myself back then, this sparked the idea to found my own business.

Offering a cloud-based solution that would not only enable companies to digitalize all their processes but would also make information available to anybody that needed it.”

Today, Hanseaticsoft’s fleet management system, Cloud Fleet Manager (CFM), 20 Marine Log // January 2021

create new ones completely from scratch. All data is visualized in a clearly structured way and users can make use of easy to navigate options to create impactful graphs to share with colleagues in minutes.

One of the key benefits is that the interface is kept simple, helping users who are non tech-savvy to create and share their own analyses. By generating impactful statistics, KPIs and detailed reports users across the business will be able to make more informed data-driven decisions to improve business operations and processes.

“This exciting integration offers new opportunities for analysis and added value for our clients,: says Buchmann. “With the option to also include data from external sources to create interactive reports, the possibilities are unlimited—giving clients many more options to take advantage of the benefits that data analytics has to offer.”

Communications In business since 1998, Warrington, U.K., based GTMaritime specializes in providing satellite-based communications solutions and services for ships that help ensure vessel compliance, intelligent processing and business operability, and crew connectivity, 365 days a year. It does so based on market leading infrastructure, backed by 24-hour customer support and continuous innovation in a portfolio of products for vessel administration, data management, software deployment, cyber protection and emails.

GTMaritime’s flagship product is GTMailPlus, a cyber secure maritime email service, which has been designed for use in demanding remote environments and is installed on over 6,600 vessels worldwide. A cloudbased service, GTMailPlus includes a web dashboard enabling remote configuration and administration across a fleet of vessels, in addition to a suite of applications such as advanced threat protection, antivirus, continuity and eNOAD management as standard.

On the Waterways, Too Bellevue, Wash.-based MobileOps offers what it claims is “the world’s most powerful and easy-to-use marine operations app.”

According to the company, its app handles a range of functions: • Compliance with regulations, such as Subchapter M, ISO, and ISM; • Routine asset maintenance as easy as checking email; • Safety simplify tracking of training metrics, credentials, and licenses; • Jobs scheduling is much easier using MobileOps than any other system; • MobileOps is accessible on computers,

Photo Credit: Hanseaticsoft

Alexander Buchmann, managing director, Hanseaticsoft

comprises more than 25 applications, including Purchase, Inspections and Audits; Schedule and Agents; Crewing, Charter, Risk Assessment, and Maintenance.

CFM is web-based and can be used without any installation. It centralizes all information and makes insights available for all employees as well as crews at sea.

Operators can gain a complete 360-degree overview of their fleet and entire operations and can eliminate data silos and replication of data in different systems. This facilitates better information exchange between crews on the ship and shoreside stakeholders.

“For the first 3 to 4 years, we were pioneering the market, but slowly more competing solutions emerged,” says Buchmann. “They also offered comprehensive systems but most of them were still offered on-premises, which means they had to be locally installed and did not really function for working remotely and exchanging information across locations. At this point in time, we still needed to put real effort into creating detailed presentations that highlighted the benefits of software for maritime and spend a long time in negotiations, but the industry was beginning to be more open for innovative solutions.

“During the last five years, other vendors also realized the benefits that cloud-computing had brought to other industries and a few companies started to offer cloudbased systems such as we do. Even those companies that were already established in the market tried to shift their solutions into the cloud, more or less successfully, and this trend has been ongoing ever since.

Even though there still had been reluctance to change, this noticeably changed during the last years and especially since the pandemic started, everyone is aware that it is no longer viable to hold on to antiquated processes and the use of modern technology is imperative to staying competitive.”

Just recently, Hanseaticsoft has integrated Microsoft’s Power BI into CFM. Power BI is a business analytics service offered by Microsoft that allows data from multiple sources to be pooled and analyzed in a central location. It provides interactive visualization tools and business intelligence capabilities and enables users to create their own reports and dashboards.

By integrating these capabilities into CFM, Hanseaticsoft is enabling companies to process any operational data from CFM in Power BI, giving them access to more robust and informative reporting options beyond the existing set of reports currently available.

Now users of CFM can choose from a variety of predefined reports, create their own reports using an assortment of templates or

TECH SPOTLIGHT tablets, and phones; and • With offline capable app Voyager, an internet connection isn’t needed.

Among the companies using MobileOps is Paducah, Ky., headquartered inland river operator Crounse Corporation with a fleet of 34 tugboats and over 1,100 barges, transporting more than 30 million tons of cargo each year.

As of July 2016, towing operations with vessels over 26 feet in length were required to start complying with Coast Guard’s Subchapter M standards and requirements by providing various manuals and documents, such as towing vessel records, health and safety manuals, maintenance logs, and much more. That creates a massive amount of paperwork and Crounse Corporation looked for a technology solution to help it navigate through the new Subchapter M operating environment.

Crounse Corporation needed a software that met and would continue to meet its requirements. Having the ability to manage all the required audits and survey reporting between shoreside and their fleet was a major priority when it came to choosing a software management tool. Additionally, the daily operations of Crounse required that its chosen solution be both powerful and expandable. Most importantly, ease of use for all crewmembers was critical to Crounse as crewmembers would be the leaders in data input and utilization.

After demoing the MobileOps platform Crounse came to the conclusion that all of its criteria could be met or exceeded by MobileOps. With MobileOps Audits and Surveys feature, Crounse was able to manage required audits along with survey reports between shoreside and vessels. MobileOps makes it easy to submit audits and surveys as well as link them with associated nonconformities and routines.

Now, the enhanced offering allows the tracking to show the future points of interest and ETAs to each point. Going beyond “tracking at a glance,” Rose Point ECS Fleet Services allows a dispatcher, port captain, provisioning, crew management or maintenance personnel to know where they have to be in the future to meet the vessel or plan for maintenance.

Rose Point says that while there are other apps that can give an operator or port captain an idea of where vessels in their fleet are, “they can’t tell you everything the vessel did along its route or report possible problem areas, including traffic or incidents on the water.”

“You can see an actual track of where the vessel has been,” says Sluka. “You can see whether the boat has sat idle and how fast it was going. There are logs of all activity in the past, too, so you can check on yesterday’s activity and so on. It shows every turn, move, pause, etc.”

Additionally, the new real-time tracking feature shows users the tow the boat has, gives them route details—including where navigation ended and when—shows bridges along the route with info coming from the Corps of Engineers, and more.

The tracking also includes flood stages for the region, barge configuration, locks, bridges and river miles listed along the route so that it is clear to those viewing the vessel’s movement what the safety conditions of the waterway are and what obstacles may be approaching.

Taxable Waterways “Another useful feature, which is still under development, is that Rose Point ECS Fleet Services will allow vessel operators to track

their routes for the federal and state taxable zones in the U.S. waterways,” says Sluka. “We are building a system that shows federal and state taxable waterways in the United States.

You can see real-time tracking to see when a boat entered and exited the taxable waterway and how far they went inside that tax zone using meters, kilometers, miles, etc. It shows how many hours it took to travel in and out of that tax zone, which is cost-effective to users. If you spend less time in those zones, it’s less money. It’s also useful for government audits, and fuel flow monitoring systems can talk to Rose Point to tell us how many gallons you burn while you’re in that zone. All of that is reported in a .csv file for your accountants.”

Another feature of the updated software is its messaging capability. Fleet Services supports messaging from the port captain to the vessels with delivery confirmation and read confirmation. If an important message needs to go to the vessel, Rose Point says it can be done in a way that allows confirmation that the message was delivered and read by the captain.

The company also says the software’s track and sensor data may be retrieved from a vessel directly from the home office. This helps with forensic analysis of a vessel’s trip or the creation of “safe routes” based on a prior trip.

A customer-requested feature now included in the updated software is Vessel Groups. This allows users to see their fleets that have vessels operating in diverse areas with different needs for these subgroups. Vessels with different navigational requirements, such as different types of electronic charts and navigational overlays, but that don’t want to see messaging that applies to other regions, can benefit from this feature.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Igor Kardasov

Enhanced Real-Time Tracking In July 2020, Rose Point Navigation Systems, Redmond, Wash., launched its ECS Fleet Services following beta testing since January on several inland waterways and coastal fleets around the U.S. According to Joe Sluka, commercial marine sales director for Rose Point Navigation Systems, ECS Fleet Services will improve fleet management from a shoreside aspect, with a new set of features providing access to information for compliance, crew dispatch, vessel dispatch, customer service, warehousing, and accounting.

The new Rose Point ECS Fleet Services has enhanced tracking. In the past, the tracking of vessels has been an exercise in locating individual vessels and placing them on the chart.

January 2021 // Marine Log 21

SALVAGE

TOP STORY

OF 2020: Golden Ray Responders Make Headway

A

mong the top ranking stories on our website last year were those cover ing the response to the capsized car carrier Golden Ray. The 656-foot ship overturned on September 8, 2019, in St. Simons Sound, Ga. The ship was declared a total loss and it was determined that it could not simply be refloated and towed out. Instead, in the ongoing removal operation, the wreck is being divided into eight sections using a chain manipulated by the twin-gantry, twin-barge catamaran heavy lift vessel VB-10000, with the bow being Section One and the stern being Section Eight.

The VB-10000 is the largest heavy lift vessel ever built in the United States.

On January 3, responders completed cutting operations to separate Section Eight (the stern) from the Golden Ray wreck. The barge 455-8 was assigned to 22 Marine Log // January 2021

move into position to receive the section once lifting preparations were completed.

The barge was then scheduled to transit to the Port of Brunswick’s Mayor’s Point Terminal for further sea-fastening. Pollution monitoring and mitigation continues on the water in the vicinity of the wreck site and along the shoreline.

The Golden Ray wreck remains stable and is monitored continuously by sensors at the wreck-site and during hydrographic surveys around the EPB. Following separation of the first section (the bow), responders spent some time on careful preparatory work before starting cutting operations on Section Eight of the wreck on Christmas Day. As well as adjustments to the massive chain that made the cut, preparatory work for the second cut included pre-drilling by divers to weaken steel along the surface of the projected cut groove and to

drill drainage holes at strategic locations along the stern to maintain stability and even distribution of weight when lifting Section Eight.

Late last month, the St. Simons Sound Incident response team was well into the cut that has now separated the stern section of the Golden Ray. At that time, the bow section of the wreck, which was successfully lifted off the vessel at the end of November, was reported as nearing a Louisiana recycling facility aboard the barge Julie B on December 29. The Julie B barge is equipped with pollution mitigation and self-containment capabilities.

“This is our first major milestone in the removal operation,” said Commander Efren Lopez, U.S. Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator. “We validated the overall removal method, while we continue to refine our strategies to increase the efficiency of the next six cuts. Responders

Photo Credits: St. Simons Sound Incident Response

Responders aboard a utility vessel use a water cannon to drive a light oil sheen towards a collection point inside the Environmental Protection Barrier for recovery.

SALVAGE pull-testing four anchors, the remaining anchor at the most challenging mooring site in the system did not meet its pull-test requirements. Efforts to remove the wreck got back on track earlier than expected a week later.

And on November 6, the VB-10000 began cutting operations of the bow section of the wreck, using some 400 feet of chain to saw through the hull. Then, some 25 hours into the cut, one of the 1.5 foot long links in the cutting chain broke.

There were no injuries or damage to the VB-10000. Responders retrieved the chain and repaired the broken link while also inspecting the chain for any additional fatigue. They resumed cutting operations shortly thereafter.

“The cutting process was carefully engineered and modeled, but it remains a highly complex operation,” said Deputy Incident Commander Tom Wiker of Gallagher Marine Systems. ”This is the first of seven cuts. During each cut we will continue fine-tuning our cutting parameters, including speed and tension of the chain, to improve its efficiency. Though the cut is taking longer than expected, we’re gaining valuable knowledge that will guide the rest of this operation.”

During this time, the Unified Command was closely monitoring an approaching storm, which later transpired as Tropical Storm Eta. In preparation for the storm,

responders removed EPB around the wreck, which was later redeployed.

Cutting operations resumed on Section One once the boom was in place. During the pause in cutting, responders were able to make modifications to the cutting apparatus to improve its performance.

Responders recovered small pieces of plastic debris at the shoreline and they continued to scan for debris on the water and at the shoreline daily.

“We have implemented multiple layers of defense and protectively positioned equipment to mitigate potential threats to the environment,” said State On-scene Coordinator John Maddox of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

“Our recovery and assessment personnel are actively monitoring the water and shoreline. We expect that some debris will escape the EPB and encourage the community to notify us immediately if they encounter any debris on the shoreline or in the water using the phone number provided.”

Approximately 400 personnel and 50 on-water assets, including tugs, barges and response vessels continue preparations to cut and lift the wreck. An environmental unit conducts shoreline assessments t h ro u g h o u t t h e w e e k a n d p o l l u t i o n response teams continue to monitor the wreck site. No emergent environmental impacts have been observed.

Section One (the bow) of the Golden Ray removal separates slightly as the cut nears completion.

The heavy-lift vessel VB10,000 arrives at the Golden Ray wreck site on October 27, 2020, to cut and lift the wreck sequentially into eight sections.

on the shore and on the water have vigilantly kept watch for and responded to any environmental impacts. We encourage the public to continue reporting any debris they encounter through the Debris Reporting Hotline and online form.”

Prior to this milestone, the removal process has had its ups and downs.

In October, St. Simons Sound Incident Unified Command said that cutting and lifting operations on the wreck needed to be delayed for several weeks.

The delay was caused by the need for engineers to modify the mooring system for the VB-10000 at the wreck site.

Engineers with the response designed an array of five anchors that accounted for multiple challenging variables, such as extreme currents in the sound, restrictions to movement due to the EPB and proximity to the shipping channel. However, after successfully installing and January 2021 // Marine Log 23

SHIPBUILDING PASSENGER VESSELS Hydropower generated from a source first harnessed by Nikola Tesla allowed new Maid of the Mist tour boats to be totally green from Day 1.

PASSENGER VESSELS: a s s e n g e r ve s s e l o p e r a t i o n s need either passenger revenues or subsidies to stay in business.

This past year, revenues have taken a double hit. Coronavirus restrictions have reduced passenger demand, particularly on commuter ferry ser v ices and placed social distancing constraints on vessel capacities. So, the present for passenger vessel operations in the U.S., as elsewhere in the world, can best be summed up as “challenging.”

The future will present another set of challenges, mostly relating to decarbonization and emissions reductions.

Pursuing zero-emissions operations has become pretty much the norm for ferry operators in places like Scandinavia. With a new administration in Washington, D.C., we can expect the U.S. regulatory climate to start to favor a similar approach.

The solution to making passenger vessel operations a whole lot g reener is increasingly likely to be electric. The good news here is that the technology is already available, is getting better, and is becoming more affordable. This is certainly the case of what goes into the vessel itself, with a big driver being more powerful, less expensive batteries.

A well-documented example of electrification in action is the Danish electric ferry Ellen. It has just been awarded the European

24 Marine Log // January 2021

Solar Prize 2020 Award, presented by nonprofit EUROSOLAR (European Association for Renewable Energy) for its ability to demonstrate the potential of green electric mobility in shipping.

Operating between the Danish islands of Ærø and Fynshav, the vessel was designed

by Jens Kristensen Consulting Naval Architects and built by the Søby Værft shipyard.

Just under 60 meters (170 feet) long and with a breadth of approximately 13 meters (42.7 feet), the ferry travels at speeds of 12-12.5 knots, and is capable of carrying 198 passengers in summer months, with this capacity dropping to 147 during winter.

It can also carry 31 cars or five trucks on its open deck.

With a 4.3 MWh Leclanché batter y energy storage system (similar to the capacity of 50 Model S Tesla cars), it is the first electric ferry to have no emergency back-up generator on board.

The battery system uses high-energy G-NMC lithium-ion cells with safety features that include a bi-cellular laminated design and ceramic separators.

At the end of the Ellen’s first year of operation, calculations show that the initial high investment costs for building the vessel would be compensated for after just five to eight years of operation. These calculations take into account the charging station’s cost and the possible need for replacing the

battery pack twice over the ferry’s lifetime.

The quick amortization, it was said at the time, meant that the operator would save between 24% and 36% in operating costs compared to operating a diesel or dieselelectric ferry for the remainder of the ferry’s estimated 30-year lifetime.

That’s all good news, but it gets better. According to Leclanché, building Ellen today, just a few years later, would be nearly 50% less costly than when she was commissioned—a reduction from about $30 million to $16 million with a payback in just five years compared to a comparable ferry burning diesel fuel.

Of course, the ferry itself is just one component of an e-ferry system, the other element being the necessary charging, cabling and other infrastructure. And to get the maximum green out of an e-ferry system, the shoreside power needs to be green itself.

BC Ferries: It Starts with Hybrid Going electric doesn’t necessarily mean waiting for a full-scale shoreside-charging infrastructure to be in place.

Damen Shipyard’s Galati yard last month launched the fourth in a series of six battery hybrid Island Class vessels for Canada’s BC Ferries. With the capacity to carry at least 47 vehicles and up to 400 passengers and crew, the Island Class vessels are

Photo Credit: New York Power Authority

P

Green Dreams and Pandemic Blues

PASSENGER VESSELS being built in line with BC Ferries’ goal of becoming efficient and environmentally responsible throughout its system. When electric charging technology matures to make electricity available in the quantities required. BC Ferries would operate the new ships as all-electric ferries, using clean energy. In the interim, they will use an on board low sulfur diesel hybrid system.

In the U.S., Washington State Ferries is also going the hybrid route. It is to convert its three Jumbo Mark II class ferries, which can each carry up to 2,500 passengers and 202 vehicles, to plug-in hybrid electric propulsion and make associated modifications to the Seattle, Bainbridge, Edmonds, and Kingston terminals. They will be followed by a series of battery-hybrid newbuild new Olympic Class ferries from Vigor that will have the capacity to carry 144 cars and 1,500 passengers each and are an important part of Washington State’s plans for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use.

the vessels that includes an onshore charging system that draws its power from New York Power Authority hydropower electricity. That green electricity is generated by the Falls and first harvested by a power station designed by Nikola Tesla.

Designed by Propulsion Data Services Inc., Marblehead, Mass., the vessels were built at the Burger Boat Company shipyard in Manitowoc, Wis., then shipped to Niagara Falls and lowered onto the Maid of the Mist dry dock and maintenance facility for assembly.

A pair of battery packs powers each providing 316 kWh total capacity divided across two catamaran hulls, offering a level of redundancy that helps to safeguard operations. The batteries allow the electric propulsion motors to reach an output of up to 400 kW, with the power setup controlled by ABB’s Power and Energy Management System.

Thank You, Nikola Tesla

While the future may be green and bright, operators of every kind of passenger vessel have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, facing restrictions ranging from complete shutdowns to severe limitations on passenger capacity and thus revenue. At one end of the spectrum owners of operations, such as dinner boats, have faced with at least the same levels of limitation as shoreside restaurants. Without some kind of bailout, whether at state or federal level, we can realistically expect to see that segment see some business failures.

Ferry services have not had to face so many closures, but have had to curtail numbers of sailings and limit passenger capacities. In a

Photo Credit: (Left) BC Ferries, (Right) American Cruise Lines

Though battery-hybrid is likely to be the path to electrification for most operators, one recent project has demonstrated the ability of American industry to get Jones Act compliant all-electric vessels onto the water in a fairly short time frame.

This past October saw Niagara Falls, N.Y., tour operator Maid of the Mists Corporation put into service the first all-electric passenger vessels in the U.S. Ordered in May 2019, the James V. Glynn and the Nikola Tesla are each powered by a high-capacity battery pack supplied and integrated by ABB, which has also supplied a comprehensive integrated power and propulsion solution for

Coping with COVID

post-pandemic world, we may well see permanent changes in commuting patterns, but ferries have a major advantage hereEclipse, in that, The 228-passenger Scenic unlike bridges, they can be moved to where set to debut in 2018, will be built at the demand is greatest.

Uljanik in Croatia and feature two 3MW Azipods from ABB

River Cruises

River and coastal cruise ship operators face pretty much identical restrictions to those faced by the rest of the cruise industry but with some key differences that ease the burden on them. They don’t have the hassle of bringing foreign national crews in and out of the country—and they don’t have the problem of having to keep vessels in operation with crew trapped on board and having to be paid. Whether the CDC is any easier on them than on their deep-sea counterparts in allowing them to resume sailing remains to be seen. In its guidance to passengers, the CDC has made it clear that it doesn’t regard river cruises as any less riskfree than ocean cruises.

On a brighter note, once cruises do resume river and coastal operators have some exciting new vessels and itineraries to offer. What’s more there are a lot of indications that there is huge pent up demand for them. One company that has been betting on this is Guilford, Conn., headquartered American Cruise Lines which has continued to build new vessels in its modern riverboat series throughout the pandemic and successful launched the fourth in the series, American Melody at its sister company, Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Md., in late November 2020.

The vessel is on schedule for its inaugural Mississippi River cruise season beginning in summer 2021.

BC Ferries’ Island Class ferries are being delivered as batteryhybrids, but plans are to make them all-electric.

Continuing its building program throughout the pandemic, American Cruise Lines says its latest modern riverboat, American Melody, will be ready to start its inaugural season in summer 2021.

January 2021 // Marine Log 25

Q&A your employment lawyer, though, before relying on the undue hardship exception because it is a difficult burden to meet.

Similarly, if you believe an unvaccinated mariner poses a direct threat due to a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or others that cannot be reduced by reasonable accommodation, you shouldn’t jump to firing the employee or to automatic exclusion from the workplace.

The sensible approach is to work with your employment counsel to find a solution that will eliminate or reduce this risk if an unvaccinated mariner poses a direct threat.

Jeanne Amy

Q&A:

What Should Employers Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine?

I

n December, American maritime and supply chain trade associations and organizations wrote Senate committee leaders asking that industry workers be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccinations.

With the industry pushing for access to COVID-19 vaccines, employers may have questions on how the vaccine will impact their operations and relationships with employees.

We recently talked to Maggie Spell and Jeanne Amy of Jones Walker LLP, a New Orleansheadquartered law firm, to get a clearer picture of what legal options there are for employers when it comes to the vaccine.

Marine Log (ML): From a legal standpoint, can employers require that mariners be vaccinated?

Maggie Spell (MS): Purely from a legal standpoint, yes – but it isn’t that simple because of exceptions to this general rule and the practical implications. There are many questions employers should be thinking through before making a decision on whether to require employees to get the vaccine. And given that it’s likely to be several months before the vaccine is readily accessible, there’s time to evaluate the options for your particular workplace on the frontend.

Setting the practical issues aside for a moment, the Americans with Disabilities Act limits an employer’s ability to conduct medical examinations except under

26 Marine Log // January 2021

certain circumstances. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission confirmed that the COVID-19 vaccine itself is not a medical examination, but warns that screening questions might be. If an employer requires employees to get the vaccine and it’s administered by the employer (or a third-party with whom the employer has contracted), the employer will have to show that any screening inquiries are job-related and consistent with business necessity. This rule is subject to two exceptions: (1) if the employer makes the vaccination voluntary and the employee has the choice whether to answer the pre-screening questions (but the vaccine can be denied if the employee elects not to answer), and (2) if the employer requires that employees receive the vaccine from a third-party with whom the employer hasn’t contracted (such as a pharmacy). If this second route is chosen, you can require proof of vaccine.

ML: If a mariner (or employee) refuses to be vaccinated on the basis of religious or health concerns for COVID-19 specifically, what should employers do?

MS: If a mariner refuses to be vaccinated, the reason why matters. When the mariner puts the employer on notice of a medical condition or sincerely held religious belief that precludes administration of the vaccine, the employer must provide a reasonable accommodation unless it would pose an undue hardship. Consult with

MS: There are so many practical implications employers should be thinking about with respect to this vaccine. Is requiring the vaccine, rather than making it voluntary or even strongly encouraging it, really necessary for your workplace? When it’s readily accessible, who is going to handle requests to be excluded from this requirement—and do your frontline managers know what to do if a mariner refuses to get the vaccine? And what are you going to do with the employees who refuse the vaccine without a medical or religious basis?

Jeanne Amy: Additionally, much of this analysis hinges on when the vaccine is readily accessible to some or all of your employees.

Industry groups, like the American Waterways Operators, have urged that the CDC include maritime industry workers in the group of individuals who should receive the vaccine in Phase 1b. Currently the only individuals who can receive the vaccine in Phase 1a include healthcare personnel and residents of longterm care facilities. Phase 1b will likely include workers in essential and critical industries. The CDC adopted the definition of “essential critical infrastructure workers” implemented by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which includes most maritime transportation workers. The definition includes “port authority and commercial facility personnel,” “mariners,” “tugboat operators,” and “workers supporting transportation via inland waterways, such as barge crew, dredging crew, and river port workers for essential goods.”

That said, other industry groups caution that each state may differ in its treatment of workers in the maritime industry, placing the onus on employers to ensure that each employee is equipped with proof that they meet the CISA definition of an essential critical infrastructure worker.

Photo Credits: Jones Walker LLP

Maggie Spell

ML: What else should maritime employers and operators keep in mind when it comes to this new vaccine?

NEWSMAKERS

Erik Fabrikant to be SEACOR Holdings CEO ERIK FABRIKANT will be the next CEO of SEACOR Holdings Inc. when his father, Executive Chairman and CEO CHARLES FABRIKANT, steps down from his executive roles as the company goes private under an agreement with private equity firm American Industrial Partners that values it at $1 billion.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is promoting CHRISTOPHER KASTNER, executive vice president and CFO, to a new position of executive vice president and COO. THOMAS STIEHLE, vice president and HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division CFO, has been promoted to executive vice president and CFO and will replace Kastner.

Cooper Marine & Timberlands, Mobile, Ala., has promoted STRICKLER ADAMS to director of marine logistics and has hired ALAN DODD as director of business development. In his new role, Adams will lead the company’s vessel and barge logistics team. Dodd has 17 years of industry experience at T. Parker Host.

DEAN STEELE has become a partner in the Corporate and Maritime and Multimodal Transportation practice groups of New York City law firm Moses & Singer LLP. A Master Mariner and a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, N.Y., he joins the firm from Norton Rose Fulbright where he was a senior counsel.

DR. RICK BUCHER is to succeed DR. JOHN F. MALLOY as CEO of mechanical pipe-joining solutions specialist Victaulic. Bucher was named president of Victaulic in April of 2020, following his June 2019 appointment as chief operating officer.

Columbia Shipmanagement reports that XANTHOS KYRIACOU has become managing director of CSM Italy, a new joint venture with Genoa, Italy-based shipowning group Premuda that will take on the full management of the entire Premuda fleet Kyriacou has extensive experience of the shipping industry having spent the last 12 years as commercial manager of Columbia’s Cyprus operation.

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TECH NEWS

Dream Ship Fitted with Ultra Compact SCR Solution A CRUISE SHIP with a starring role in a popular German TV series is to be retrofitted with an ultra compact SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system that will enable it to meet the highest emission standards, allowing it to operate in Norwegian Heritage Fjords.

The ship, the 1991-built, 624 passenger capacity Amadea, which serves as the main set for the TV series Das Traumschiff (the Dream Ship), is operated by Phoenix Reisen GmbH and managed by Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services.

The SCR solution was developed by MAN PrimeServ Augsburg in Germany, which prioritized keeping hazardous emissions to a minimum while maintaining engine performance and propulsion efficiency.

Installation will begin in September 2021 with two of MAN’s SCR systems will be installed, one for each of Amadea’s two MAN 7L58/64 four-stroke propulsion-engines.

MAN PrimeServ Augsburg has previously retrofitted the Amadea’s turbochargers—in the process improving engine efficiency and significantly reducing CO2 emissions—and also installed MGO in place of HFO injection nozzles in order to minimize black-carbon emissions. The combined work carried out 28 Marine Log // January 2021

on the vessel reflects MAN Energy Solutions’ desire to increasingly become a supplier of complete propulsion solutions.

The MAN SCR solution will bring the Amadea’s engines from Tier 0 status to Tier III emission level, and will reduce NOx emissions by 90%, equivalent to a savings of 600 tons per annum.

The fully modular SCR solution will be integrated into the Amadea’s engine-control system. With its closed-loop system and a weather station that uses environmental data, the NOx-reduction rate is maximized and ammonia-slip minimized to just 10 ppm, comparable to that of a car.

Low ammonia slip is good not only because ammonia is a greenhouse gas and affects the climate, but also because it reduces urea consumption, enabling the urea-tank size to be reduced.

A feasibility study run by MAN PrimeServ at the beginning of the project confirmed the suitability of the compact, modular SCR system for the limited space available aboard the vessel. Its integration into the vessel’s narrow stack is only possible due to the unit’s special honeycombs and their high reactivity in a two-layer slim reactor design.

FINNISH ROTOR SAIL SPECIALIST Norsepower Oy Ltd. has received its first newbuild order for the installation of a record five tilting rotor sails on board a large bulk carrier, of undisclosed size and on order for an owner who prefers to remain anonymous at this stage.

Preparations are currently taking place with the installation of the rotor sails onboard the vessel scheduled for 2021.

The announcement follows soon after an agreement between RO/RO operator Sea-Cargo and Norsepower for the first installation of the world’s first tiltable rotor sails.

Norsepower says that with 2030 and 2050 IMO GHG emission targets driving the shipping industry to decarbonize, today’s announcement underscores the rotor sails adaptability as a means of greatly reducing GHG and other emissions on newbuilds as well as retrofits.

“We are thrilled to be installing five tilting rotor sails onboard not only the first Norsepower newbuild order, but also the first bulk carrier,” said Norsepower CEO Tuomas Riski. “Installing the rotor sails on the first bulk carrier demonstrates that our technology is adaptable for b ot h retrof it s and new b uild vessels, and across varied operational profiles and vessel t ypes.

The Rotor Sails can improve a vessel’s Energy Efficiency Design Index and future -proof vessels agains t impending IMO GHG regulations.

There is incredible value in using wind propulsion, particularly as it is a solution available now with proven results. We look forward to seeing the Rotor Sails in action next year.”

Photo Credit: (Top) MAN Energy Solutions; (Bottom) Sea-Cargo

Mystery Owner to Fit Bulker with Tilting Rotor Sails

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SAFETY FIRST

Safety: A Way of Life in the event of man overboard, and includes a mobile module for searches in open water.

Wireless sensors can also be used to monitor holds and rooms for gasses, heat, smoke, and air quality, providing further protection to crew in every room of the ship.

“Seeing” Through Steel

Breathing Life into Legislation The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) ensures the minimum standards of safety to which all ships flying the flag of a contracted state must adhere. It requires those responsible for a ship to comply with the International Safety Management Code (ISM), with individual ships being issued a Safety Management Certificate that must be renewed every five years. The Maritime Labour Convention also sets minimum requirements for working and living conditions for seafarers, including occupational safety.

Despite the good intentions behind these regulations, the global shipping industry still struggles with safety issues. Poor implementation and breaches of SOLAS and ISM are continually cited in vessel detentions by portstate authorities around the world, and the 2019 annual report of the Paris MOU clearly indicates ISM as the main detainable deficiency area.

32 Marine Log // January 2021

When such breaches persist, it becomes necessary to address not just the safety, but the sanctity of life at sea, says Nesje. “Each and every life must be kept as safe as possible, and we cannot say we are doing this until we have done everything within our reach to protect crewmembers in as many situations as possible on board,” he adds.

Lack of sufficient safety can also undermine worker loyalty and confidence.

Simply Staying Safe Enabling real-time recognition of shipboard personnel, fall detection, man s certified first plug-and-play wireless IoT platform for the global maritime fleet.

Supported by In:Mesh, In:Range is the ScanReach application comprising a system of fixed and wearable sensors, central processing units and visual interfaces that allows shipowners and operators to know where crew are on a vessel at all times.

During an emergency, their location on board and their condition are immediately evident, and any absences at muster stations can be quickly and effectively noted and addressed.

Crewmembers can also notify a central operator in the event of accident or disablement.

The system automatically issues alarms

Putting Safety First Pays Off Studies in various industries have shown that companies prioritizing a strong safety culture typically attain higher levels of productivity. Employees are more likely to practice better decision-making and more effective communication, leading to fewer loss events and lower personnel turnover.

Beyond the risk of death or serious injuries to workers, failing to address safety issues can cause significant damage to a company’s reputation, making it difficult to compete for contracts, Nesje argues. Lack of sufficient safety can also undermine worker loyalty and confidence.

“Not least to ensure the crew’s mental wellbeing, a safe ship is a smart investment,” Nesje says. “It makes sense that crews who are confident in the measures put in place to ensure their safety are more likely to be content, and happy crewmembers have more reason to contribute positively to the performance of a ship.”

KEVIN GALLAGHER Maritime Journalist, BLUE-C In cooperation with ScanReach

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Denys Yelmanov

B

y placing safety at the top of their list of priorities, shipowners can ensure that it becomes not just a way of working, but a way of life, says John Roger Nesje, CEO of Norwegian wireless technology pioneer ScanReach. “Shipping must commit to safety in order to create a positive environment where employees don’t just survive, but thrive,” he maintains.

Good health and safety practices are paramount in protecting employees, but they also contribute to a constructive and productive workplace, Nesje points out. “This is just another reason why the number one priority in a company should be to make sure that the working environment is as safe as possible.”

The secret to onboard traceability is a ScanReach technology for transmitting sensor-based data in a steel environment. The technology, based on a combination of frequency control, sophisticated algorithms and protocols, wirelessly transmits real-time data from distributed sensors to the bridge or control room.

Using Bluetooth, the sensors communicate through nodes in the ScanReach wireless onboard network. Any changes to monitored individuals, spaces or components are immediately picked up by the closest microsensor and relayed automatically in the system.

Data can also be transferred to land in order to enhance rescue efforts or training at the fleet level. Information can be shared with remote locations including fleet management offices, emergency services, insurers and performance monitoring specialists.

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24 Hour Contact 912-236-1331 ext 7100 mgosales@colonialfuels.com www.ColonialGroupInc.com

Growing a Business. Building a Family.

Morehead City, NC Savannah, GA

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Wilmington, NC

Brunswick, GA

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Georgetown, SC

Jacksonville, FL

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Charleston, SC

Cape Canaveral, FL