from the bridge
Full scream ahead Supply shortages, crowded yards, and understaffing plague an already problematic refit process. Triton met with six captains via Zoom recently for a 'From the Bridge' roundtable on refit challenges. To encourage candid discussion, Triton’s policy is to not identify participating captains or their comments. Here’s a preview of some of the topics discussed. To read the full transcript, go to TritonNews.com/bridge. What’s been different in the past two years? Are there post-pandemic issues complicating refits?
• I just finished a 10-month refit on a 150, and right now I’m outfitting a smaller one for a new purchase. The problems that I’m seeing are obviously supply chain issues — and that’s across the board. And it seems to be widespread, and I think that everybody’s sick of it, that the time has passed now, and why do we not have this stuff? And then when I talk to subcontractors, some of them are saying that they’re busy, but they can’t do the jobs because they can’t get employees. • I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the supply chain issue and I think that’s probably been the biggest drawback in the last couple years. I was in a shipyard in Greece a month ago, and they didn’t seem to have as many problems as the U.S. getting stuff in. • I’ve been lucky. With this particular boat I’m fitting out now, we managed to find 44
APRIL 2022 | TritonNews.com
the only crane, the only davit, that was available in the U.S. and Canada for the requirements that we needed. Nothing major — normally I could go buy it off the shelf and they’d have it to me in four or five weeks. Before the boat arrived, we had to commit to this crane, otherwise the next one was 9 months away. • I understand economics and supply chain issues, etc., but now they are price-gouging for the same product, which has now taken me longer to get, causing problems in the relationship between a vendor and the captain, who is then having to turn around to the owner and say, “Look, I cannot get this,” which then potentially leads to the owner going, “Well, my captain’s bloody useless.” So there’s a whole trickle-down effect here.
There are so many boats here, it’s insane. I thought it can’t be that bad, but when we got here, it was really that bad. • In every situation there’s always a winner and a loser, right? So now, if you look at Fort Lauderdale, for example, depending on what you’re trying to get done, you literally may be S.O.L. You try to get dockage here right now — you can’t. Everything on the ICW is absolutely full. Shipyards are loaded because people cannot get what they need to get the hell
out and [back to] using the boat. Not in all cases, but in a lot of cases. It’s a really stagnant environment right now. • Finding space is a problem. You’ve got a lot of boats that got laid up, or the owners aren’t using them because of COVID regulations, or they couldn’t get parts. So everyone wants a berth all of a sudden and all these places are booked up. • I was surprised at how many boats are in the U.S. at the moment. ... I thought it can’t be that bad, but when we got here, it was really that bad. There are so many boats here, it’s insane. Are you having to put work off because of these current problems?
• I ’ve got to understand and order in advance what I think I’m going to need. There’s a margin for error in overexpenditure or under-expenditure, and now there’s a margin also that even when you get there, they said stuff was there and it’s not. So, you’re having to think a lot further ahead, and you may not be able to get it done. I think, to some degree, people are getting by with just what they can do now, and looking at it again later on. Do you prefer a full-service yard or self-service yard?
• If you’ve got the budget and you’re short on time, definitely a full-service makes it a little easier on the captain and the rest of the crew, because the yard will have its own project manager. ... If you have any sort of little problem and you’re hustling to get out of the yard, then it’s up to the yard to spend whatever it takes and take whatever time it needs to get it rectified and get you out on time. ... Of course, it’s
