WorkBoat June 2016 by WorkBoat

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JUNE 2016

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JUNE 2016 • VOLUME 73, NO. 6

ON THE COVER The Mississippi River just below New Orleans. Photo by Don Finch

FEATURES 22 Vessel Report: Rib Recipe Helped by U.S. and foreign military sales, RIB production has been steady since 9/11.

30 Cover Story: Yearbook Consistent growth for tug construction. Despite energy market woes, many shipyards are finding work. After several years of slow, stable growth, the inland barge industry finally cools off. The boom times continue for passenger vessel operators. The carnage offshore refuses to fade.

BOATS & GEAR

24 On the Ways Rozema delivers its first inland tour boat. New 53' pilot boat from Gladding-Hearn for Texas pilots. Main Iron Works delivers a pair of refurbished tugs to New Orleans tug operator. Harley Marine Gulf takes delivery of new double-hull tank barge from Vigor Fab. Eastern Shipbuilding delivers second of four 5,150-hp Z-Tech tugs to Houston tug operator.

48 Pioneer of the Atlantic Blount Boats delivers the first U.S.-built crew transfer vessel for the offshore wind energy market.

52 Safe Guards Custom fendering designs are put together like Legos.

AT A GLANCE 8 8 9 10 12 14 16

On the Water: The downside of new technology. Captain’s Table: Still opposed to the TWIC card. OSV Day Rates: Kicking the offshore sector when it’s down. WB Stock Index: Small gain for stocks in April. Inland Insider: Grain exports face headwinds. Insurance Watch: Can you really risk going with a big deductible? Legal Talk: Take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act.

NEWS LOG 18 18 18 19 20 20

Future OSVs need to be bigger and newer. El Faro’s voyage data recorder located. Towing vessel inspection final rule publication date finally arrives. To survive, OSV operators must stack vessels. Man fined $100,000 for laser strike on Washington ferry. Marad awards $4.9 million in small shipyard grants.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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52 DEPARTMENTS 2 Editor’s Watch 6 Mail Bag 54 Port of Call 63 Advertisers Index 64 WB Looks Back

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Editor'sWatch

Ups and downs

ast year’s Yearbook report contained plenty of bad news from the oil patch. That hasn’t changed. If anything, news from the offshore energy sector has gotten worse. And the inland waterways, after several years of stable growth, has cooled. But just like last year, we again report that several other sectors of the workboat market are doing just fine. One that stands out is the tug market. Powerful tugs are being designed for U.S. ports that anticipate the need to handle the new generation of bigger post-Panamax containerships coming from Asia through a widened Panama Canal. So shipyards are being called on to max out available power on the new tugs they build. Seattle-based Jensen Maritime has designed a new 110' multipurpose tractor tug. It will be able to assist large 18,000-TEU containerships expected to call at West Coast ports. The new tug will be delivered to Vessel Chartering, a wholly owned division of San Francisco-based Baydelta Navigation, in 2017. Also faring well are shipyards that are not overly dependent on the energy sector. This includes some Gulf yards like Conrad Shipyard and Eastern Shipbuilding. Conrad has taken a hit from the sluggish oil patch, but the Louisiana yard is set to deliver the first dedicated LNG bunker barge in North America later this year. Conrad is also building other types of workboats, including an assortment of barges, ATB tugs, a towboat and a ferry. Eastern has built a bunch of OSVs in recent years and still has a few more to finish up, but its current orderbook includes Z-drive tugs, towboats, and an ATB dredge.

David Krapf, Editor in Chief

On both coasts and the Great Lakes, yards such as All American Marine, Vigor Industrial, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Blount Boats, and Bay Shipbuilding are busy with work. Passenger vessels are on a roll. The last two years have been pretty good for dinner, excursion and inland cruise vessels, and this season looks even better. Passenger vessel operators say they are gradually seeing a return to the good old days before the recession. Hopefully, at this time next year we can say the same for the entire industry.

dkrapf@divcom.com

WORKBOAT® (ISSN 0043-8014) is published monthly by Diversified Business Communications and Diversified Publications, 121 Free St., P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438. Editorial Office: P.O. Box 1348, Mandeville, LA 70470. Annual Subscription Rates: U.S. $39; Canada $55; International $103. When available, extra copies of current issue are $4, all other issues and special issues are $5. For subscription customer service call (978) 671-0444. The publisher reserves the right to sell subscriptions to those who have purchasing power in the industry this publication serves. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, ME, and additional mailing offices. Circulation Office: 121 Free St., P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438. From time to time, we make your name and address available to other companies whose products and services may interest you. If you prefer not to receive such mailings, please send a copy of your mailing label to: WorkBoat’s Mailing Preference Service, P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORKBOAT, P.O. Box 1792, Lowell, MA 01853. Copyright 20 16 Printed in U.S.A. by Diversified Business Communications.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/9/16 3:13 PM

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Kirk Moore kmoore@divcom.com

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Ashley Herriman aherriman@divcom.com

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Accidents are inevitable

n the closing paragraph of Alan Bernstein’s April Captain’s Table (“Safety management for the domestic fleet”) he wrote, “Accidents do happen ... ” The true meaning of these words is that accidents are inevitable. Unfortunately, far too many people agree with him and accept that a certain number of accidents will happen no matter what we do to prevent them. Accidents don’t just happen. They are caused by failures of the barriers that we put in place, or fail to put in place, to prevent them. When an accident is investigated the goal should be to identify the root causes, i.e. the systems failures that allowed the barriers to fail. Too often investigations identify the facts — who, what, when and where — and never truly consider the why and how, or the investigation stops as soon as we can identify who is to blame.

For example, I once reviewed a report of a tow wire failure in the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to departure the captain did what the regulations and the company’s Safety Management System (SMS) required by inspecting the tow gear. He found a kink in the tow wire about 20 feet from the poured socket. He reported it to management, who sent the port captain (who was new to the company and on his first job as port captain) to take a look. They did a joint inspection and agreed that the damage did not require immediate repair. Complicating the voyage was bad weather offshore, so the captain planned an inshore route, without considering the impact of the shallower water along the route. The seas were worse closer to shore, but the tug could not put out more wire because of the shallow water. The mate also failed to reduce speed when he noticed the loss of a proper catenary was straining the wire. You can probably guess what happened

next. The wire parted and the barge drifted for 24 hours until recovered, thanks to a heroic effort by the crew. It would be easy to say this accident was caused by human error. Dr. James Reasons, an expert on human error, wrote, “Human error is a consequence, not a cause.” This was not a case of simple bad judgment on the part of the captain and port captain. It is a case that illustrates Reasons’ logic perfectly. The root causes of this accident were in the company’s systems. As an industry we must reject the idea that “accidents will happen” and move to a culture where accidents are unacceptable. The only acceptable target should be zero accidents. Jerry Crooks Townsend, Del.

Ed. Note: Crooks was in the U.S. Coast Guard for 33 years — 24 years active duty and nine years as the USCG’s first civilian senior investigation officer.

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On the Water

The good and bad of technology

N By Joel Milton

Joel Milton works on towing vessels. He can be reached at joelmilton@ yahoo.com.

ew technology and advances in technology are only worth the money and time it takes to learn if they prove their value by helping mariners operate more safely and/or efficiently. At the same time, the technology must not undercut those gains with needless and avoidable complexity that distracts us or leaves us more vulnerable to a systems failure. It is important that this be done prior to a technology’s widespread adoption. Claims that a product or technology is “new and improved” have been around forever, and sometimes there may even be a hint of truth to them. But I’ve been less and less impressed over the last decade than ever before. While the pace of change and the claimed advances associated with it has steadily increased, the experience at the user end is often stagnant or deteriorating. Needless complexity, useless features, declines in reliability and, most importantly, user-friendliness, all add up to

Captain’s Table Still against TWIC

By Capt. Alan Bernstein

Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats in Cincinnati, is a licensed master and a former president of the Passenger Vessel Association. He can be reached at 859-292-2449 or abernstein@ bbriverboats.com.

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have opposed the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) since its inception. TWIC is completely unnecessary for passenger vessel operators. Most passenger vessel operations are small — small enough to know each crew and their backgrounds. Passenger vessels also have a higher level of security because they are required by law to have a security program. Plus mariners, by their very nature, have always historically maintained the security of their vessels. But why bring up TWIC now when it seems that most have put the issue behind them? Last month, I participated in the Passenger Vessel Association’s Annual Congressional Fly-In in Washington, D.C. We listened to Washington insiders, visited with members of Congress and their staffs, and had an opportunity to discuss many issues. We thanked congressmen for rescinding the ill-advised federal law requiring passenger vessel operators to install inflatable buoyant apparatus on their vessels. This was a big legislative victory for PVA and it saved operators thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenditures. We also raised the red flag about a proposed regulatory requirement

frustration for those tasked with navigating in the era of almost unlimited liability. Not so long ago, during the Steve Jobs era, Apple was renowned for both technical prowess and user-friendliness. Their stuff always worked. It used whatever existing complexity needed to make it all work, hidden “under the hood.” The user experience was simple, seamless, you could say even elegant. It all integrated so nicely. Today? Not so much. Has anyone noticed that the latest versions of iTunes are really lame? The same can be said for much of the softwarebased marine electronics of all types that frustrate and distract us while we execute our on-watch duties. In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to find simple, singular devices that quietly and reliably do their jobs well without trying to do 10 other things. The trend toward full systems integration of all components is particularly worrisome to mariners. These systems often don’t play nice with one another. Even worse, it leads you right into the single-point failure danger zone. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. for operators to maintain “official” logbooks and urged Congress to pass the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA). This includes passing the exemption for small passenger vessels from having to submit the Environmental Protection Agency’s Vessel General Permit. We also pressed Congress to adequately fund the Coast Guard’s inspection mission, which is important to advancing safety. It was clear from these discussions that regulators have moved past TWIC and are now concentrating on cybersecurity concerns. The Coast Guard and others are studying this issue and examining “what if” scenarios pertaining to the maritime industry. Is it realistic that hackers will be able to take over the operation of vessels or AIS systems remotely? Maybe, but I’m concerned that like TWIC, new cybersecurity regulations will make regulators feel good but deliver little in terms of real security. An industry friend told me recently that he tried to use his TWIC at the airport and that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker refused to accept it. I was astounded. The agency that issues TWIC cards does not recognize it as a valid form of identification. I urge Congress and regulators to think long and hard about how new laws and regulations will affect our industry. As a small business owner, my company and the livelihoods of my employees and crew hang in the balance. www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/4/16 8:51 AM

OSV Day Rates Leave offshore alone By Bill Pike

hank goodness for the energy professionals that run the offshore oil and gas business offshore. If it were run by politicians and lawyers there would be a blowout every day, followed by intense finger pointing and enough lawsuits to fill the Library of Congress. As it is, these groups do enough damage from their sequestered positions on land. Last month, the Senate overwhelmingly approved an ambitious energy bill that, among other things, sets alternative energies at the top of the list of national energy priorities. Sure, fossil fuels are given a nod. The bill would speed federal approval of plans to export LNG. And coal, that other fossil fuel, will be made “clean.” Despite the generous support in the Senate, some were not impressed. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research think tank based in Washington D.C., called the bill “a continuation of government meddling in the energy economy” that would direct federal money to politically preferred technologies such as wind, solar and nuclear energy. The bill also flies in the face of a House-passed version that boosts fossil fuels. President Obama has threatened to veto the House bill. If the Senate bill wins out, it could set back activity in the Gulf of Mexico even further, exacerbating the current oil and gas price crisis. Perhaps more alarming, though, is a suit against the Interior Department for what was called “fast track” permitting of potentially dangerous oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Rooted in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the suit seeks to force regulators (Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement) to conduct more in-depth environmental reviews of drilling and completion plans before issuing permits. The suit argues that BSEE is not doing this.

Filed by the California-based Center for Biological Diversity, the lawsuit is being reviewed by BSEE. The suit also contends that fracturing is carried out offshore without proper environmental review, increasing the risk of oil spills, earthquakes, toxic water and air pollution. Implementation of the Senate bill,

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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or the success of the lawsuit against BSEE, would be a serious blow to any potential recovery in the Gulf. Both would slow the already torpid activity levels offshore and might be near fatal. That, of course, would be devastating for rig and boat operators. It may be a good time to call your senator.

APRIL 2016 DAY RATES, FLEET UTILIZATION VESSEL TYPE

AVERAGE DAY RATES MAR. '16

APR. '16

UTILIZATION

APR. '15 APR. '16 APR. '15

SUPPLY (DWT) 1,999 & below $ 8,575 $ 8,575 $ 9,462 70% 2,000-2,999 $12,785 $12,785 $18,524 50% 3,000-3,999 $19,033 $19,033 $27,812 73% 4,000-4,999 $20,120 $20,120 $30,750 80% 5,000 & above $24,967 $24,967 $35,700 75%

90% 100% 100% 100% 100%

CREWBOATS Under 170' $ 3,558 $ 3,558 $ 3,694 42% 170' & over $ 5,653 $ 5,653 $ 6,082 79% SOURCE: WorkBoat survey of 32 offshore service vessel companies.

84% 87%

that Impress

5/4/16 8:51 AM

STOCK CHART

WorkBoat Composite Index

For the complete up-to-date WorkBoat Stock Index, go to: www.workboat.com/ workboat-index.aspx

Stocks post slight gain

n April, WorkBoat stocks posted a modest gain of 14 points, or just under 1%. The gain follows last month’s 7.8% increase. For the month, gainers topped losers by a 5-1 ratio. Operators continued to gain ground in April. Among the top percentage winners for the month were Superior

INDEX NET PERCENT COMPARISONS 3/31/16 4/29/16 CHANGE CHANGE Operators 319.46 330.65 11.19 3.50 Suppliers 2493.51 2472.27 -21.24 -0.85 Shipyards 1931.39 2021.63 90.24 4.67 Workboat Composite 1571.27 1585.24 13.97 0.89 PHLX Oil Service Index 158.98 180.32 21.34 13.42 Dow Jones Industrials 17685.09 17773.64 88.55 0.50 Standard & Poors 500 2059.74 2065.30 5.56 0.27

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Energy Services, Tidewater and Helix Energy Solutions Group. Houston-based Helix jumped 54% in April. That follows a 43.6% increase in March, helped by a February earnings report that was better than expected. The company, which provides subsea construction, inspection, maintenance, repair and salvage services to the offshore energy industry, rose in April despite reporting a first-quarter net loss of $27.8 million, or 26 cents a share, compared to net income of $19.6 million, or 19 cents a share, for the same period in 2015. Owen Kratz, president and chief executive officer of Helix, said in a statement that the company expected the first quarter to be “the low quarter in 2016 due to continuing weak industry conditions combined with typical seasonal factors.” Going forward, Helix expects to see improved financial performance the remainder of the year due to the commencement of the Q5000 contract with BP in the Gulf of Mexico and the normal seasonal pick up in well intervention activity in the North Sea. The Q5000 is a DP-3 well intervention vessel. Also in the Gulf, the Q4000 well intervention vessel had a good first quarter. It was fully utilized, working for two clients, and had a minimal 44 hours of downtime during the quarter. The vessel is currently working and Helix said the Q4000 has a busy year ahead of it with several clients. “For all practical purposes, the only vessel on the well intervention side that had high utilization during the quarter was the Q4000 in the Gulf of Mexico,” Kratz said. — David Krapf www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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4/28/16 10:21 AM

Inland Insider Rough ride ahead for U.S. grain exports

ne of the most valuable college classes I took was international business. It provided an assortment of insights into a myriad of items that affect competition for international trade such as currency exchange rates, tariffs and taxes. The competiveness of U.S. grain exports, primarily corn and soybeans, which are particularly important to the barge sector, has been affected by recent currency exchange rates. The dollar is trading relatively strong to most other currencies. Moreover, two large South American grain producers and exporters, Brazil and Argentina, have seen their economies and currencies deteriorate, and their debt has a junk rating.

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In 2012, the Argentine peso and Brazilian real traded at 0.25 and 0.62 to the dollar, respectively. Recently, the two currencies were at 0.07 and 0.28 to the dollar, about 30% and 45% of their value in 2012. Consequently, the current farm exchange rate prices of grain from these countries are about 70% and 55% less than in 2012 compared to the dollar. The recent influx of corn imports from Argentina to the Southeastern U.S. poultry sector is an example of the affect of cheap currencies. Augmented by soft ocean freight rates, the result has been that the delivered price of imported corn is cheaper than U.S.sourced corn by rail from the Midwest. So what effect will cheap Argentine corn imports to the U.S. have on U.S. corn exports? Although the volume of Argentine corn exports is small compared to U.S. corn exports, the same factors apply — cheap currencies and soft ocean freight rates. This will likely negatively affect U.S. corn exports.

Brazil and Argentina are major grain exporters that compete with the U.S. on the By Kevin Horn world market. Together, Brazil and Argentina export more soybeans than the U.S. and about 60% of U.S. corn exports. U.S. corn and soybean exports will face intensified pressure throughout the supply chain. Brazil and Argentina are expecting near record harvests this year. Already, corn imports from Argentina have more than doubled in the first two months of 2016 compared to 2015. U.S. farm producers will be squeezed by cheaper substitutes. Eventually, this will trickle down to the dry barge sector, which is heavily dependent on U.S. grain exports. Kevin Horn is a senior manager with GEC Inc., Delaplane, Va. He can be contacted at khorn@gecinc.com.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/4/16 8:52 AM

david clark wireless headset system improves crew-to-crew communications When Tidal Transit needed a wireless communication system for its personnel transfer vessels servicing offshore wind farms in the North Sea, they selected a David Clark Series 9900 communication system for the job.

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Insurance Watch

Are deductibles what they’re cracked up to be?

ost people look at deductibles as a way to reduce the cost of insurance. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium (up front or each month). Well, at least that’s the thought process. Most also believe they’ll never have a loss or claim or one that will be large enough to use a deductible, so why not have a big deductible? You must first consider if you can afford to carry that huge deductible. Some vessel owners are very tight with expenses, which is the reason they may opt for a big deductible. But if they’re hit with more than one of those big deductible payments, it could be a major blow to their operation. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this scenario play out several times. Then there’s the case of a deductible

on a land-based structure. I’ve usually stuck with $1,000 deductibles because it offers the best buy. People still ask for higher deductibles on their property so I provide a quote. However, the point of diminishing returns usually arrives sooner than you think. Most insurers have a sliding scale of credits applied to various deductibles. They know through actuarial tables that the vast majority of property claims are small so the credit structure is geared toward lower deductibles. For example, if somebody requests a $5,000 property deductible or even a $25,000 deductible, they may be surprised to see only a 10% or 15% premium savings while taking on far more risk. The lesson here is to walk through your policies very carefully with your insurance agent and make sure he or

she is totally on your side with the logic of increased deductibles. Even better is if the agent has a deep By Gene knowledge about McKeever how claims are handled by insurers. On another note, effective May 1, I retired from my position at Allen Insurance and Financial after 24 years. The daily grind is now behind me but I’ll still be penning this column each month, in addition to teaching marine and general insurance to both insurance people and lawyers, and serving as an expert witness. Gene McKeever is a marine insurance consultant and instructor. He was a marine insurance agent for 39 years. He can be reached at gene@mckeeverconsulting. net or 207-596-1738.

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Legal Talk Win with the Freedom of Information Act

o win, you’ve got to push. You’ve got to look where others aren’t and sprint for an opening in the channel before the tide turns. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is like a set of cleats that’ll let you pivot and push your endeavors to a new level. So whether you’re seeking an advantage or to just level the playing field, the act is a law you should like. It allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the federal government. States also have similar laws designed to allow its citizens to get their hands on the paper trail. Whether you use the federal statute or state law, the costs of making a request for documents and things (like Coast

Guard audio recordings) is generally small. I use these laws all the time and there’s nothing better than receiving an envelope stuffed full of documents from some government agency. Coast Guard and local investigative reports, data about this or that, applications for government licenses, contract and grant awards, vessel boarding reports, customs information, regulatory agency records, and information on government controlled corporations are just some of the cargo of wealth available through FOIA laws. Some of what you request may be protected from disclosure under certain exceptions and often you’ll receive documents where personal or proprietary information is redacted. That’s okay, and sometimes these agencies forget to do this. Whatever the case, these requests can help you win because they give you a chance to peak behind the curtain and see how

something unfolded or the approach a competitor may have taken to win a grant or government contract. In a prior John Fulweiler column, I whined that the Coast Guard seemed to have dropped the ball during the last few years when it came to such requests and I’ve read that the current administration has a very poor FOIA track record. The Coast Guard appears to be running on all cylinders again. In the last six months, the Coast Guard has been attentive to my FOIA requests. The Coast Guard is now a good role model for other agencies. Underway and making way. John K. Fulweiler of Fulweiler LLC is a licensed mariner and maritime attorney. He can be reached at john@saltwaterlaw. com or 1-800-383-MAYDAY.

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www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/4/16 8:52 AM

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JUNE 2016

NEWS LOG TEXAS TOWBOAT ACCIDENT CLAIMS CREWMAN

NEWS BITTS TOWING VESSEL RULE PUBLICATION DATE EXPECTED IN LATE MAY

U.S. Coast Guard

A Coast Guard rescue boat crew, Harris County Sheriff's Office boat crew and other mariners search for a crewman after a towboat capsized in the San Jacinto River just outside of Houston in April.

n early May, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of the Subchapter M draft final rule. Officially called the Inspection of Towing Vessels, the new rule will implement a program of inspection for certification of towing vessels, which were previously uninspected. It will also prescribe standards for safety management systems and third-party auditors and surveyors, along with standards for construction, operation, vessel systems, safety equipment, and recordkeeping. The draft final rule has been returned to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Coast Guard for final editing prior to its publication in the Federal Register. It is expected to be published in late May.

ne crewman died and four others escaped when a towboat capsized and sank April 19 on the San Jacinto River near Houston. The 70'x24'x5' 1,800-hp Ricky J. Laboeuf, operated by Taira Lynn Marine, Houma, La., was working with barges about half a mile south of the Interstate 10 bridge when the accident occurred, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s officers rescued the four surviving crewmen and were joined in a morning search by the Coast Guard and mariners. About two hours later a Coast Guard helicopter crew spotted the body of Joshua Brazeal of Tuscaloosa, Ala., floating downriver. The Coast Guard was investigating the cause of the accident, including whether a high flood stage on the river and fast water contributed to the accident. — Kirk Moore

EL FARO VOYAGE DATA RECORDER FOUND

Bigger OSVs in the future, shipyard exec says

ffshore service vessels that are 5,000 to 6,000 deadweight tons and no more than five years old are the future boats of the Gulf of Mexico. “The majority of vessels working in today’s market are vessels that are big, really big,” Christian Vaccari, senior vice president, Gulf Island Shipyards, Houma, La., said at the WorkBoat Maintenance & Repair Conference and Expo in New Orleans in April. The OSVs are “loaded with capacity — cranes, accommodation units and more, and these ships have very deep water drafts.” 18

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Vaccari said he calls the 240', DP-2, 2,400-dwt OSVs that have been built over the last several years “high spec” boats while the 300', DP-2 or better, 5,000- to 6,000-dwt OSVs are “ultra high spec,” double the capacity of the 240s. “Will we see the 240' OSV working in the Gulf again?” he asked. “As oil companies squeeze operators, will the efficiencies of the larger vessels make the 240-class obsolete?” Vaccari’s shipyard pedigree goes back to the 1960s, when his family bought a boatbuilding yard that became Leevac Shipyards. The Jennings, La.-

early six months after the sinking of the 790' cargo ship El Faro, the voyage data recorder was located. But investigators have to wait for whatever information is locked in the VDR. Still attached to the ship’s four-ton mast, at a depth of 15,000' some 41 miles northeast of Crooked Island in the Bahamas, the device will require a specialized deep-sea salvage effort, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The April 26 discovery by searchers, using the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry deployed from the 274'x52' research vessel Atlantis, briefly raised hopes that the VDR could provide critical new information to a Coast Guard marine board of inquiry that was reconvening for hearings in late May. The recorder could have stored recordings of voices on the bridge and navigational data from the ship’s final hours. — K. Moore

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/5/16 8:50 AM

Stacking may be best survival strategy for Gulf OSV operators

aking vessels out of the offshore market and stacking is probably the best strategy for service companies to survive the lean times in the Gulf of Mexico, several top players said at Marine Money’s 6th Annual Houston Offshore Finance Forum in April. Todd Hornbeck, chairman, president and CEO of Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc., described an industry that “has not seen the bottom yet” in the Gulf of Mexico. The reason, Hornbeck said, is that oil and gas operators will not cut dividends but have instead chosen to “make money on the backs of the service companies.” Liquidity is the “name of the game,”

Ed Levy/Eelpond Photo Group

based shipyard built OSVs for Tidewater Marine, Hornbeck Offshore Services, which he helped found, Aries Marine and others. Gulf Island Fabrication, Houston, purchased Leevac for $20 million in January. Vaccari said this down cycle is having a profound effect on the industry, one that will change the way oil companies do business with boat owners in the future and the way boat operators do business with shipyards in the future. “We can expect these vessels to require higher levels of competent technical support once they begin their drydocking cycles,” he said. “By their sheer size, their access to many shipyards is limited.” His research showed that in the Gulf, only 22 drydocks can accommodate ultra high spec boats. “That is where I see the market heading,” Vaccari said, “away from areas that cannot support deepwater access.” He said that there are approximately 421 U.S.-flagged OSVs in the Gulf of Mexico, with only 216, or 51% of the available fleet, meeting his definition of a high spec vessel. Of those 216, 70 were stacked, leaving about 80 ultra high spec OSVs in play. — Ken Hocke

Christian Vaccari of Gulf Island Shipyards spoke at the WorkBoat Maintenance & Repair Conference in April.

said Quintin Kneen, president and CEO of GulfMark Offshore Inc. Operators need to focus on financials, improving banking relations, redoing covenants and modifying debt agreements, he said. Jeffrey M. Henderson, executive vice president and CFO of Harvey Gulf International Marine LLC agreed, noting that Harvey Gulf would be willing to go to cash breakeven in the short term, but anything less than that would require stacking. Most on the Houston panel were skeptical of consolidation as a defense against the industry’s financial threats. “Why consolidate when you can’t put the boats to work?” asked Henderson. “We believe that the best strategy is to take vessels out of the market,” Hornbeck said. “It’s the best way to reduce costs and save cash. If you don’t, and [you] work below costs, you are just damaging equipment for no reason.” However, he warned, the exit of skilled mariners from the market will make it difficult to bring vessels out of stack. While most agreed that banks are currently not good sources of funds for the industry, they seemed to agree that private equity was still an option. In fact, J. Peter Laborde, founder of Laborde Marine, noted that on a recent trip to New York City he was surprised to learn how knowledgeable and even enthusiastic private equity

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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is about the offshore service vessel industry, even in the face of industry resistance. “Over the last year, we have been telling them that this is not the time,” Laborde said. “[But] they are coming whether we like it or not. It’s like we have a bullseye on our backs.” According to Hornbeck, the danger in the private equity fund scenario is that “if the banks will give us money, we will build boats. We are our own worst enemy.” Laborde agreed, noting that a publically traded company could be forced to overbuild by investors. Prior overbuilding over 15 years to serve a then growing deepwater sector flooded the market, compounding the troubles with low oil prices. According to IHS Energy – Petrodata Marine Base, the Gulf of Mexico workboat fleet this spring had a utilization rate for vessels under contract of just 36.4%. — Bill Pike

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS The Black Point was the last U.S. ship torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II. The ship’s name was incorrect in the May 2016 issue of WorkBoat (“Merchant Marine Exhibit Opens at WWII Museum,” page 26).

5/5/16 8:50 AM

NEWS BITTS Washington man hit with $100,000 fine for ferry laser strike

spate of laser incidents that targeted Washington State Ferries and Coast Guard crews in Puget Sound culminated with a $100,000 civil penalty levied on a ferry passenger, who flashed a high-powered blue laser into a ferry pilothouse, injuring the master and chief mate. Coast Guard officers investigating the Oct. 22, 2015, incident zeroed in on Mark Raden of Freeland, Wash., as the suspect who pointed the laser at the pilothouse of the passing 362' ferry Tokitae. At the time Raden was aboard the 328' ferry Kitsap, transiting between Mukilteo and Clinton, the Coast Guard said. “Firing a laser at a vessel is extremely dangerous and directly interferes with the safe movement of commercial vessels and the Coast Guard’s ability to conduct search-and-rescue opera-

MARAD AWARDS $4.9 MILLION IN SMALL SHIPYARD GRANTS

he Maritime Administration (Marad) awarded $4.9 million in grants to support capital improvements at small shipyards. Grants were awarded to nine small shipyards throughout the U.S. to support modernization, increase productivity, and make the yards more competitive in the global marketplace. The grants were primarily available to U.S. yards with fewer than 600 production employees. Among the grants awarded were: • Gravois Aluminum Boats (Metal Shark) LLC, Jeanerette, La.: $582,410 for a big top portable shelter and a transporter. • Chesapeake Shipbuilding, Salisbury, Md.: $545,504 for a mobile rough terrain crane and infrastructure improvements. • Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla.: $529,868 for a precision cutting system. • Marine Group Boat Works, Chula Vista, Calif.: $414,954 for a gantry crane and metal working equipment. • Diversified Marine, Portland, Ore.: $304,846 for boom lifts, scissor lifts, welding equipment and other equipment. • Conrad Orange Shipyard, Orange, Texas: $604,505 for LNG tank building equipment and pipe welding equipment. • Yank Marine, Dorchester, N.J.: $386,250 for a 70-ton rough terrain crane. — Ashley Herriman

Washington State Ferries

tions,” Capt. Joe Raymond, Captain of the Port for Sector Puget Sound, said in announcing the penalty. “I encourage individuals who witness laser attacks on commerWashington State Ferries’ Tokitae was the cial vessels and Coast target of a laser hit in October 2015. Guard small boats and aircraft to call 911.” Raymond levied the $100,000 penalty as an initial step toward the Coast Guard seeking civil penalties for violation of a safety and security zone, and interference with the safe operation of the Tokitae

while it transited between Mukilteo and Clinton. The final civil penalty amount will be determined by a Coast Guard hearing officer in Arlington, Va. “Boat and helicopter operators can be temporarily blinded by green laser lights during night operations,” said Cmdr. Brian Meier, who heads up the Sector Puget Sound Response Department. “There have been several laser light incidents in Washington involving not only our crews, but commercial operators as well. As a safety authority, we are very concerned about these incidents causing accidents or delaying emergency responses.” — Kirk Moore

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www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/5/16 8:50 AM

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4/28/16 10:22 AM

RIBs

Rib Recipe

RIB production receives a boost from military sales.

Metal Shark is building RIBs for the Foreign Military Sales program.

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/11 had a big impact on the patrol boat market. Millions in federal dollars became available not only for the construction of small boats for the Coast Guard and the rest of the U.S. military, but also for every state, municipality, county and township that could put an application together to show they needed boats to thwart potential terrorist attacks. Many of those vessels that were built were rigid hull inflatable boats (RIBs). One RIB manufacturer that has built for the military and other government agencies is Ribcraft USA, Marblehead, Mass. Ribcraft is proud of the fact that it only makes one kind of boat — the RIB. “A real RIB tube acts to help stabilize the boat to help handle larger wave action,” said Matthew Velluto, the company’s director of business development. “We’re happy to build these boats.

We’ve been at this for 15 years. “We haven’t seen any real changes in the industry, but our business has grown,” Velluto continued. “We’re delivering a lot of boats. These boats are used by the military, governments and by private industry, too. Our customers look to RIBs to answer their needs. They’re the boat of choice.” NAVY RIB ORDERS In 2014, Ribcraft won a five-year contract to build 7-meter (24'×8'8") RIBs for the Navy to be used for everything from force security to lifesaving to ship escort. The boats, which can operate in only 15" of water, are powered by 254-hp inboard Steyr diesel engines with Mercury MerCruiser Bravo Two X sterndrives. “They’re Navy shipboard vessels,” said Velluto.

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www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/6/16 10:06 AM

Willard Marine

“Steyr’s engines have really made some leaps and bounds in their abilities.” A large portion of Ribcraft’s market is U.S. municipalities. Velluto said his company continues to build boats of all sizes for fire and police departments in coastal and inland waterways (lakes and rivers). “Designed specifically as surf rescue boats and offshore fast response vessels, municipal departments are turning to RIBs to answer the need for a safe, reliable, and rough water performance boat for search and rescue, patrols, enforcement, diving, and tactical operations,” he said. Ribcraft also has several contracts for Coast Guard-certified passenger for hire vessels as well, with two 9-meter tour boats currently in production for operators in Hawaii and the Southeastern U.S. The company has also built a number of Subchapter T vessels over the years. The Navy also awarded Willard Marine, Anaheim, Calif., a five-year contract in 2014 to provide two types of 7-meter RIBs that will serve as ready service lifeboats for search-andrescue missions. The contract includes a standard craft based on the 7-meter RIB Willard has been producing for the Navy for 25 years, and a separate version specifically for LPD-17 class ships, which the company has also been supplying for several years. The terrorist attacks on the USS Cole in October of 2000 and 9/11 sparked secondary missions for these craft as identified in the contract as anti-terrorism/force protection; maritime interdiction operations; visit, board, search and seizure; safety boat/escort; and tow and recovery. A critical operational requirement for these shipboard RIBs is that each boat must be carried aboard and deployed from a variety of Navy ship classes, Willard said. Thus, the boats will be compatible with a variety of existing shipboard handling and stowage systems. Like the Ribcraft Navy 7-meter RIBs, these boats will also have 254-hp inboard Steyr diesels with Bravo Two X sterndrives. Earlier this year, Willard delivered a

Willard delivered a SOLAS rescue RIB to the Army earlier this year.

SOLAS 670 rescue boat to the Army to serve aboard the Corps of Engineers dredge McFarland in Philadelphia. Outfitted with a Volvo Penta D3 220hp inboard engine paired with a HamiltonJet HJ2274 waterjet, the 22'5" SOLAS RIB performs at speeds of up to 26.5 knots and accommodates nine passengers. A Cranston Eagle singlepoint lifting frame is incorporated into the SOLAS 670 to allow for a more dynamic launch and recovery system. Extensive safety features on the boat include a self-righting frame and a 40-ounce, UV-resistant polyurethane collar with a reinforced rub strake. Willard has also been awarded a contract from the Oceanside (Calif.) Police Department to build an updated version of the Crystaliner 33, a wellknown West Coast design popular with fire, police and rescue agencies. The 33'4"×10'8" Crystaliner has a fiberglass hull and will be powered by twin Yanmar 8LV-350 inboard diesels, for a cruising speed of 27 knots. For firefighting it will be equipped with a Darley PSDE 125 single-stage centrifugal fire pump, capable of moving over 1,250 gpm at 150 psi. Jennings, La.-based boatbuilder Metal Shark continues to build 7-meter RIBs under a $15 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract in support of future Foreign Military Sales (FMS) requirements. The award includes options that could bring the total contract value to $47 million.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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Metal Shark can produce boats to support specific FMS case requirements worldwide. The 7-meter boats support a range of missions including personnel/cargo transfer, search and rescue, open water patrol, vessel interdiction and boarding, and insertion/ extraction of forces. “Large orders such as this one benefit Metal Shark customers big and small by way of increased production efficiencies and economies of scale that keep our pricing competitive, our workforce stable, and our technology on the leading edge,” Metal Shark’s president Chris Allard said in a statement when the contract was announced. In 2009, Brunswick Commercial and Government Products introduced its Impact RIB product lineup. The newest design, the 850 D, is a hard-sided RIB that features a hybrid air holding/foam-filled collar with a solid fiberglass gunwale. It’s designed to combine the characteristics of an air-holding and foam-filled insert collar to create a boat that features a solid fiberglass gunwale with the advantages of a collar. “One of the greatest benefits of the new D-collar is that it greatly reduces the risk of deflation,” Brunswick’s director of engineering, Keith Ranieri, said in a statement announcing the new product. “However, if the collar is punctured or damaged, the collar will keep the same form and functionality and the boat will remain fully operational.” 23

5/6/16 10:15 AM

CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AT WORKBOAT YARDS

On TheWays

ON THE WAYS

Rozema Boat Works

Rozema builds its first inland tour boat

55' passenger vessel is Rozema’s first inland tour boat.

or over 80 years, Seattle City Light, the electrical provider for the city of Seattle, has offered boat tours on the scenic glacier-fed Diablo Lake, a City Light reservoir in the North Cascades Mountains. This spring a new boat started taking passengers on the three-plus-hour ride. It’s the Alice Ross IV built by Rozema Boat Works, Mount Vernon, Wash., and delivered to Seattle City Light on March 29. The aluminum 55'×16' Alice Ross IV is a Rozema design that was based on one of the boatyard’s previous 50 footers. However, it was “totally redesigned for their purpose,” said Dirk Rozema, who, along with his brother, Jason, is the third generation to operate Rozema Boat Works. “It’s the first inland tour boat we’ve built.” The focal point of the design is the cabin with large vertical windows along the sides and smaller windows in the roof. With all the glass, “the view from inside the cabin is spectacular,” said Rozema. “You look up and out through the windows and see the peaks all around you. The whole design is for view-ability.” There’s seating in the cabin for 47 passengers, but outside, the large aft deck has seating and plenty of standing room for all-around viewing. There’s a gate on the aft deck’s port and starboard sides for entering and exiting the boat. The gate entrances, as well as the rest of the boat, are compliant with Americans with 24

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Disabilities Act regulations. “That’s one of the reasons they built the new boat,” Rozema said. There’s usually a two-man crew, the captain at the control station at the front of the cabin and a park ranger who explains the history of the area and what the passengers are seeing with the aid of a remote mike and PA system. The Alice Ross IV is rated for 12 knots with a full load though it typically cruises at 10 knots. Power comes from a pair of 500-hp John Deere 6090 diesels turning Hamilton Jet HJ 364 waterjets through ZF 305 gears. There’s also a 25-kW Northern Lights generator, along with a Dometic heat and air conditioning system that’s housed behind a false ceiling in the middle of the cabin. Once Seattle City Light’s new boat left Rozema, work began on a 65' oil skimmer and several 40', 249-bbl. recovery barges for Western Canada Marine Response Corp., Burnaby, British Columbia. — Michael Crowley

Gladding-Hearn delivers new 53' pilot boat to the Sabine Pilots in Texas

ladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Somerset, Mass., recently delivered the 53'6"×17'8"×8'6" all aluminum deep V monohull pilot boat Port Arthur to the Sabine Pilots in Groves, Texas. Designed by New Bedford, Mass.-based C. Raymond www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/5/16 9:00 AM

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding

Next Generation Marine

Hunt Associates, the new boat has a 4.8' draft, features wide side decks, side and rear doors, and boarding platforms on the roof and bow. At the transom are throttle and steering controls and a winch-operated hinged rescue basket, level with the rescue access. “It’s a design of ours that we tweak for each organization,” said Bob Provencal, one of C. Raymond Hunt’s designers and a former Gladding-Hearn employee. “There are two designs for these boats. One is for the boats up north and one for those down south. The ones up north have extra heating and the ones down south have extra air conditioning basically.” Main propulsion comes from double Caterpillar C-18 diesels, each rated at 715 hp at 2,100 rpm. Loaded top speed is 28 knots. The engines turn 5-bladed nibral propellers via Twin Disc MGX5135A Quick Shift gearboxes. A Humphree Interceptor trim tab system with automatic trim control was installed at the transom. The hydraulic steering system is by Seastar. The Port Arthur’s running speed is 28 knots. “The Cat C-18 has become a go-to engine for this size boat,” said Provencal. “The number of engine companies that make 15 to 17 liter engines is shrinking.” The vessel is equipped with a 12-kW Alaska Diesel genset.

Next Generation Marine’s tugs during christening ceremonies in April.

Capacities include 850 gals. of fuel and 55 gals. fresh water. The boat has a crew of two — captain and deckhand. The wheelhouse is cooled by two 16,000-Btu air conditioners. A third, 12,000-Btu unit is in the forecastle. “This is some of the most serious air conditioning I’ve seen put on a boat of this size,” said Provencal. Interior accommodations include eight Llebroc seats, head, small galley, and two settee berths forward. Furuno FR8122 with 12" LCD, GP32 GPS/WASS Navigator, RD 33 depth sounder, SC50 satellite compass and twin Standard Marine GX5500 VHF radios make up the electronics suite. — Ken Hocke

New 53' pilot boat for the Sabine Pilots.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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Main Iron delivers refurb tugs to Next Generation

ouma, La.-based Main Iron Works recently delivered two refurbished model bow tugs to New Orleans-based Next Generation Marine. The new minority-owned tug company bought the two tugs from Crosby Tugs, also of Houma, and had them morphed into the 118'×32'×16' tug Compass Dominator and the 115'×28'×14' tug Compass Stallion. The tugs can handle offshore towing, ship docking, rig mobilization and demobilization, and marine construction. “We were actually working in the [Mississippi] river last month during high water,” said Next Generation majority owner Capt. Eddie Compass IV. “The current was ripping. We were docking and undocking, being used as holding tugs, whatever Crescent [Towing] needed. The Compass Dominator is powered by twin Alco 12-251 diesels, producing 4,200 hp at 1,600 rpm each. The marine engines are connected to 102"×114", 4-bladed wheels through Reintjes marine gears with 5:1 reduction ratios. The propulsion package gives the tug a running speed of 13.5 knots and a bollard pull of 65.31 short tons. Two Caterpillar 3516 diesel engines, developing 3,000 hp at 1,600 rpm each, power the Compass Stallion. The Cats connect to 102"×114", 4-bladed propellers through Western marine gears with 6:1 reduction ratios. 25

5/19/16 4:36 PM

On TheWays

BOATBUILDING BITTS arley Marine Gulf has taken delivery of the Fight A.L.S. tank barge, designed by Elliott Bay Design Group, Seattle. The 422'×76'8"×27' double-hulled tank barge was built by Vigor Fab, Portland, Ore., and delivered on Feb. 19. The barge, paired with the 4,500-hp tug Barry Silverton to form an ATB unit, joins Harley’s offshore fleet working the Gulf and East coasts to transport clean petroleum products, specifically gasoline and distillates. The Fight A.L.S. includes 12 separate cargo The Z-Tech tug Neptune for Suderman & Young.

Elliott Bay Design Group

New double-hulled tank barge for Harley Marine.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group

tanks and has the ability to pump cargo at 10,000 bbls. per hour. A nitrogen-generating tank inerting system is onboard, and all pump and auxiliary engines meet Tier 3 standards. — Ashley Herriman Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla., has delivered the second in a series of four 5,150-hp Robert Allan-designed Z-Tech 2400-class terminal and escort tugs to Suderman & Young Towing Co. The Neptune was delivered March 28. Eastern is simultaneously constructing an identical series of Z-Tech tugs for BayHouston Towing, and on March 30 launched the third

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www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat 3/25/2016 1:11:24 PM

5/5/16 9:00 AM

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84' fast crew supplier for the oil and gas industry.

The propulsion package gives the boat a running speed of 13 knots and a bollard pull of 47 short tons. “The versatility of what these tugs can do is what made them attractive to us,” said Compass. “They were well maintained and the price and bollard pull were what we were looking for.” Tankage on the Dominator includes 90,000 gals. of fuel oil, 2,000 gals. lube oil, and 20,000 gals. potable water. Capacities on the Stallion include 60,000 gals. fuel, 12,000 gals water, and 1,000 gals. lube oil. 28

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78' pushboat for Higman Barge Line.

Higman Barge Lines

tug in that series, the David B. In February, Eastern delivered the first tug in the series, the H. Douglas M, to Bay-Houston. The David B is scheduled to deliver later this year. In April, Eastern launched the 340' class multipurpose service vessel Harvey Blue-Sea for Harvey Gulf International Marine in New Orleans. The 5,737-dwt MPSV measures 340'×73'×29'3" and features a diesel electric propulsion package that includes four Wärtsilä 6L32, Tier 2 generators, sparking 3,170 kW of electrical power each, and two Schottel SRP 3030 FPP (VFD) Z-drives, producing 8,978 hp each. The vessel is also fitted with three 2,010-hp Schottel STT 5 FPP (VFD) tunnel thrusters. Capacities include 288,927 gals. of fuel oil and 121,997 gals. potable water. The cargo deck is 8,100 sq. ft. The MPSV, scheduled for delivery in early 2017, features an offshore crane, helideck and moonpool. — A. Herriman Hope Services, Dulac, La., has delivered a new 78'×34'×10' pushboat to Higman Barge Lines Inc., Houston. Designed by Entech Designs LLC, Kenner, La., propulsion for the Capt. David Carriere is provided by a pair of Cummins QSK38, which produce 1,000 hp each at 1,800 rpm. The engines turn 73'×58' Sound props mounted on 6"-dia. 18"×11-7/8" shafts with Twin Disc MGX-5321 gears with 6:1 reduction ratios. Tank-

age includes 27,768 gals. of fuel, 6,700 gals. potable water, and 259 gals. each for gear, engine and hydraulic oil. JT Marine, Vancouver, Wash., is building a 110' tractor tug for Vessel Chartering LLC, a subsidiary of Baydelta Navigation Ltd., San Francisco. The design offers the flexibility to support ship escorts, assists and towing, according to designers Jensen Maritime, Seattle. Metal Trades Inc., Yonges Island, S.C., has landed its first new construction contract for a 50'×24'×5'6" twinscrew pushboat for Bald Head Island (N.C.) Limited LLC. The CT Marine-designed pushboat will be powered by John Deere 425-hp engines and equipped with dual 40-Kw Northern Lights generators and Patterson wire winches. Damen Shipyards Group is marketing its fast crew supplier (FCS) 2610 to the oil and gas sector as a flexible multipurpose vessel that can help operators reduce costs. More than 40 of the 84'×34'×9'6" vessels have been built to date, most of them as wind farm support vessels for North Sea duty. The first FCS 2610 with offshore oil and gas standby capability, the Merel-G, was delivered in July 2015 to Rederij Groen Scheveningen for crew transfer operations at the Netherlands’ Wintershall platforms. — Kirk Moore

Ship’s service power for the Dominator comes from two GM 6V-71 gensets, sparking 75 kW of electrical power each, while ship’s service power aboard the Stallion comes from twin 50 kW GM 4V-71 gensets. With a draft of 15' and a crew of 11, the Dominator also features an Intercon towing drum that handles 2,000' of 2" cable. The boat is ABS classed Maltese Cross A-1 Towing Service — US Tonnage Certificate, Safety Management Certificate, Continuous Synopsis

Record, Certificate of Documentation; AMS ISM certified International Tonnage Certificate, International Ship Security Certificate and International Loadline Certificate. The Stallion boasts nine bunks, a 14' draft, and an Intercon double-drum towing winch with 2,000' of 2" cable. The tug is ABS classed hull and machinery. “We’re going to run this company efficiently and pass the savings on to the customer,” said Compass. — K. Hocke

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Bruce P.

YEARBOOK

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t this time last year, oil prices began to lose ground. For OSV operators, rates and utilization began to dip and cold stackings started to pick up. Now, the offshore energy sector is mired in what some describe as a depression (see page 45). Shipyards on the Gulf Coast with strong energy ties have been hit hard, no longer able to rely on big OSV backlogs. But other yards in the Gulf and in other regions of the U.S. are faring better (see page 32). Inland barge operators, which have enjoyed several years

Tugs see steady growth and design advances

class was the 121'×36'×18' Mariya Moran, designed for Moran Towing Corp., New Canaan, Conn., by Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering, Milford, Mass. Built by Patti Marine Enterprises, Pensacola, Fla., the ATB is mated with a 160,000-bbl. barge. Along with big ATBs, demand was steady for ship assist tugs. Over the past year Washburn & Doughty Associates Inc., East Boothbay, Maine, had no fewer than nine 93'×38'15'5" Z-drive tugs in the works for Moran Towing and more for other customers. “We had a pretty good backlog of tugs to build with the Tier 3 engines before the Tier 4 (requirement) kicked in,” said Bruce Washburn, executive vice president. “We’re close to cleaning that up.” Now the shipyard is getting ready to use Tier 4 engines in new vessels, and looking at ways to modify the design and refine the keel to optimize escort performance.

By Kirk Moore, Associate Editor

Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc.

t’s been a tough year, with tougher prospects for offshore businesses, but the tugboat sector has enjoyed another year of continued growth and construction and technical advances. Size matters for harbor tug operators, with East Coast ports preparing and competing for the post-Panamax generation of bigger containerships coming from Asia through a widened Panama Canal. So shipyards are being called on to max out available power on the new tugs they build. Meanwhile, the oil patch depression could bring more competition from Gulf of Mexico yards hunting for new work. Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc., Melville, N.Y., made some major investments geared toward standardizing its articulated tug-barge (ATB) fleet with the delivery of two 150'×44'×24', 10,000-hp tugs, the Kim M. Bouchard and Donna J. Bouchard. The tugs were designed by Guarino & Cox and built at VT Halter Marine Inc., Pascagoula, Miss. Their little sisters, the 138'×38'×20', 6,000-hp tugs Morton S. Bouchard Jr. and Frederick E. Bouchard, followed out of Halter’s Moss Point Marine facility at Escatawpa, Miss., and joined Bouchard’s New York-based coastal fleet. Company president Morton S. Bouchard III said the vessels are part of a plan to have all its 80,000-bbl. capacity and larger barges pushed by Intercon tugs, while improving safety and crew living conditions. Another new ATB in the 6,000-hp

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of slow, stable growth, have finally hit a speed bump, hurt by the plunge in all major commodity groups — petroleum, coal, agricultural products — that are moved by barge (see page 37). On the positive side, new tugs continue to be built at a steady pace (see below), and passenger vessel operators are coming off another good year, with leisure business continuing to benefit from a stronger economy that is boosting corporate business as well. Operators are enjoying strong advance bookings for the 2016 summer season (see page 42). Seattle-based Jensen Maritime has designed a new 110' high-performance tug around meeting those Tier 4 emission requirements, and sidestepping the problem of looming ballast water regulations. In lieu of ballast tanks, the tug crew will transfer fuel between tanks as necessary to maintain trim. The multipurpose tractor tug being built by JT Marine, Vancouver, Wash., was jointly developed by Vessel Chartering LLC and Jensen to have the ship assist and escort capabilities of smaller harbor tugs, while delivering the improved towing performance and increased range of larger oceangoing tugs. It will be able to assist large 18,000-TEU containerships expected to call at West Coast ports. Delivery is scheduled for the second quarter of 2017 to Vessel Chartering, a wholly owned division of San Francisco-based Baydelta Navigation Ltd. Going forward, post-Panamax ships

The 6,000-hp Morton S. Bouchard Jr.

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Ken Hocke

are challenging operators, designers and builders to fit in as much horsepower in tugs as practical. “It’s got them all going for higher horsepower because they will have bigger ships,” Washburn said. “We just heard the Port of Miami will require two 6,000-hp tugs” for large ship movements. That trend could soon bump up against some constraints. “You’re pushing up on the upper level of what a typical 95- to 100-foot docking tug has,” he said. “When you get up over that 6,500-horsepower threshold, the size of the Z-drives jump exponentially.” That translates into more weight, from a 30-ton Z-drive up to a 50-ton drive. So too with engines, with 12-cylinder EMDs going to 16 cylinders for example, Washburn said. “It would jump up to well over a 100-foot tug at that end.” U.S. and international needs for ship assist and terminal tugs have been good for Robert Allan Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, whose core business is designing harbor tugs. RAL’s new projects range from the Iron Guppy, a custom 65', 750-hp icebreaking tug due for delivery to Ports Toronto in June, to a new generation of its RAmparts 2400-W tugs, 80'×37'×13'6" twin Zdrives, the first to be built by SAAM SA of Chile. “The last year was a very busy year, an extremely busy year. Sort of our best year ever,” said Jim Hyslop, manager of project development for RAL. “Demand has softened a little bit in the last few months, but it may be picking up again.” For buyers, operating costs are still a high priority. “They’re still focused on cost efficiency. People are tightening their belts,” Hyslop said. But those fleet operators also want their new vessels upgraded for better crew safety and habitability, with better onboard living and working conditions, he said. RAL’s stable of newbuilds include the Z-tech 2400-class escort and terminal tug, beginning with the Triton,

The 6,000-hp 121'x36'x18' Mariya Moran.

an 80'×38'3"×15'9", 5,150-hp vessel built by Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla. Launched in September 2015, the Triton was the first of eight under construction at Eastern for Houston-based tug operators Suderman & Young Towing Company and Bay-Houston Towing. Two more were launched by Eastern in March: The Neptune for Suderman & Young, and the David B. for Bay-Houston. Creature comforts are a big priority among tug operators, with the industry’s concerns over recruiting and retaining workers leading to more upscale accommodations. That’s one hallmark of the new series of eight 100'×34'×15', 4,200-hp tugs for Baltimore-based Vane Brothers Company. Built by St. Johns Ship Building, Palatka, Fla., the class was designed by Frank Basile of Entech Designs LLC and is closely related to Basile’s Patapsco-class tugs built from 2004 to 2009. The first tug delivered in January, the Elizabeth Anne, is the 27th vessel built for Vane under the supervision of its senior port captain Jim Demske, who is recognized in the industry for delivering crew comfort along with safety and functionality. The Elizabeth Anne features mahogany paneled upper and lower pilothouses, and spacious accommodations for up to seven crewmembers.

YEARBOOK: SHIPYARDS

Yards find work in spite of oil price collapse By Ken Hocke, Senior Editor

ews surrounding the collapse of the oil and gas market might lead many to think that the shipbuilding industry has been stopped dead in its tracks. That’s not true. New construction and repair work in steel and aluminum on the East and West coasts, the Great Lakes, and, yes, in the Gulf, is still going on at a steady pace. What is true is that the number of vessels contracted for, under construction or delivered over the past 12 months has dropped, according to WorkBoat’s Annual Construction Survey and other sources. Last year the total number of boats in the WorkBoat survey was 628 compared to this year’s 515, an 18% drop. Predictably, the big losers were supply boats and crewboats. This had a big effect on several yards that were purchased, merged or filed for reorganization. However, many boatbuilders are doing just fine, building patrol boats, research vessels, passenger vessels, towboats, tugs and other vessels. Though construction of offshore service vessels has dried up over the last 18 months, it is important to note that Gulf Coast shipyards accounted for more than 250 of the total number

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of boats in the most recent WorkBoat survey. Conrad Industries has built for the offshore industry but has a diverse orderbook. The Morgan City, La., shipyard is set to deliver the first dedicated LNG bunker barge in North America later this year. The 232'×48'8"×15'8" barge was designed by Bristol Harbor Group and will have a capacity of 2,200 cu. meters. “In spite of the price of oil, LNG will be part of the conversation going forward because of its environmental upside,” said Matt Paxton, president, Shipbuilders Council of America, Washington, D.C. Conrad is also building other types of workboats. Its backlog includes an assortment of barges: anchor, dry bulk, deck, tank, asphalt, LPG, etc. ATB tugs, a towboat and a ferry are also part of Conrad’s orderbook. A success story out of Jeanerette, La., is Metal Shark, which has several

Gulf yards have almost completely worked off their OSV backlogs.

patrol boat contracts underway for multiple boats. The company, which recently expanded, may add even more space soon. Other yards are building plenty of workboats too. Eastern Shipbuilding Group has built a bunch of OSVs in recent years for Hornbeck, Harvey Gulf and Boldini (Brazil) and still has a few more to finish up, but its current orderbook is flush with non-energy work. It includes an ATB dredge, Z-drive tugs and inland

towboats. And a small Texas yard that has carved out a nice towboat niche is John Bludworth. The same can be said for Geo Shipyard’s research vessel niche. Shipyards on the East and West coasts and the Great Lakes are busy too. These yards are building pusher tugs, ATB tugs and barges, fireboats, pilot boats and passenger vessels. The list includes All American Marine, Vigor Industrial, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Gunder-

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son, Blount Boats, and Bay Shipbuilding. “I think there are bright spots in other areas,” said Paxton. “We have lots of smaller yards building from IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) contracts. In Hampton Roads (Va.) there are plenty of repair yards doing commercial work and the expectation of more Navy repair work coming in the second half of this year.”

Conrad has stayed busy despite a falloff in its energy-related backlog.

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GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS Vigor and Nichols Brothers are in the middle of a four-boat, $500 million contract to build 1,500-passenger, 362'3"×83'2"×18' Olympic-class ferries for Washington State Ferries. The Tokitae was delivered in mid-2014, the Samish in 2015, the Chimacum is scheduled for delivery in 2017, and the fourth unnamed ferry is scheduled for completion in 2018. Designed by Guido Perla & Associates with 4,384 LT of displacement, the new ferries sport 6,000 hp, room for 144 cars, and a hull lay out to reduce wake. “This is an issue we knew we wanted to address from the beginning,” Matt Von Ruden, the director of vessels for WSF told WorkBoat earlier this year. “The hull lines were provided up front to the shipyard as an entry point into the design/build process.” In April, a Senate subcommittee approved a bill that includes funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The bill includes $75 million to complete a new NOAA survey vessel. NOAA currently has 16 ships in its aging fleet, but that number will dwindle to eight by 2028. These vessels enable NOAA to map the ocean floor, support weather forecasts, conduct oceanographic and climate research and improve ecosystem and fisheries management. “Those are areas that we want to see stay strong,” said Paxton. “There’s a need to maintain our strength in these areas and have a long-term vision for what we want to accomplish.” The subcommittee also approved www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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— Editor-in-Chief David Krapf contributed to this report.

YEARBOOK: INLAND WATERWAYS

Inland barge market finally cools off

By Pamela Glass, Correspondent

015 started off strong for most sectors of the inland barge industry, as business continued a steady rise out of the recession. But by mid-year, high water on the rivers and a dip in oil

USACE photo by Fred Tucker

$159 million for the design and construction of three regional-class research vessels (RCRV) instead of the two RCRVs proposed by NSF. By having three regional ships, the Gulf of Mexico and the East and West coasts will each be able to have their own dedicated RCRV to maximize research time in each region.

A coal barge tow enters Pickwick Lock in Counce, Tenn. Movements of coal by barge are down.

prices put a damper on things. And by year’s end, tough market conditions in just about all goods moved by barge further soured the mood, with experts predicting this would continue into the new year. “Two months into 2016, our industry faces a very challenging eco-

nomic landscape,” Thomas Allegretti, president and CEO of the American Waterways Operators told the Inland Waterways Conference in March. “Nearly every sector of our business is facing very difficult market conditions and it’s not clear yet where the bottom of the trough is,” he said. “We all know

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this is cyclical business, but what’s particularly challenging today is that all of the major commodity groups — petroleum, coal, agricultural products — are in a down cycle.” But before the bad news had set in, the industry was enjoying an up cycle, especially in the petroleum markets. Increased crude oil production from fracking produced a surge in demand

Kirby’s revenue has taken a hit from the drop in oil prices.

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for tank barges as energy companies looked for efficient, safe and economical options to move their product to refineries. Business was so brisk that many called it a “tank barge renaissance.” Some tank barge operators expanded their fleets and others got into the liquid business for the first time. Tank barge operators like Kirby Corp, Houston, the nation’s largest, enjoyed record profits, strong balance sheets and excellent cash flows. The oil boom, coupled with strong demand for dry cargo barges to move grain, helped the barge fleet grow 2.8% last year. The dry cargo fleet was up 2.5% and liquid was up 4.5%, according to Informa Economics, a research and 9:08 AM consulting group. There were 928 new barges added to the fleet by the end of 2015, while 376 were retired. The number of covered barges increased, open barges dipped, and tank barges hit a new record. But by the end of 2015, the tank barge sector was feeling the pinch of a rapid crude price drop, which caused long-term crude-by-barge contract prices to stall and renewals to sputter. Earnings at companies like Kirby took a hit, and they redirected equipment to other uses and reined in their economic forecasts. CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITES The year also saw challenges on many other fronts: high water and strong currents last spring slowed transit times and limited the size of barge tows, causing many operational headaches to barge operators; there were serious yet unsuccessful attempts to repeal the Jones Act, which prevents non-U.S. vessels from operating between domestic ports; and continued

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softness in the coal market meant less demand for open barges, as competition from natural gas from fracking and tightening federal emissions regulations closed many coal-fired plants. Steel, fertilizer and frack sand barge movements were also slow. These conditions helped produce some mergers in the business, such as the acquisition of AEP River Operations by American Commercial Barge Line in November, as companies sought to reduce operating costs and weather downturns. On the plus side, the industry worked hard in Washington to convince legislators of the value of adequately funding inland waterways infrastructure, which is in serious need of maintenance and renovation. Double-digit increases in the Corps of Engineers’ operating budget last year are allowing the agency to address a backlog of maintenance projects and get stalled construction projects moving again.

Also, congressional passage of a landmark, five-year highway bill in December should boost demand for the barged movements of commodities like cement and asphalt needed for highway and bridge projects. Other 2015 highlights: • A 9-cent-a-gallon increase in the barge industry’s diesel fuel tax went into effect April 1, 2015. The new 29-cent tax is deposited into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and is matched by general treasury funds for new construction and major rehab of the inland waterways system. Paid by about 300 commercial operators, the new tax is expected to add about $800 million more a year to fund waterways improvements. • Big steps were taken to improve mariner credentialing services at the Coast Guard. New credential application forms were launched and postdating merchant mariner credentials went into effect, which allows mariners

to apply several months in advance of a credential’s expiration date. • In early May, the Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the Subchapter M draft final rule. The towing vessel inspection rule has been returned to the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard for final editing prior to its publication in the Federal Register. It is expected to be published in late May. • Congress came close to passing vessel discharge reform legislation that would end a patchwork of overlapping federal and state authorities governing vessel discharges. Enactment remains a top priority of the barge industry in 2016. “The year ahead has the potential to be a truly transformational one for us, for both good and ill,” AWO’s Allegretti said. “We will need to be at the top of our game to ensure we tackle effectively a daunting agenda and navigate the storms on our horizon.”

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YEARBOOK: PASSENGER VESSELS

Business is booming for passenger vessels By Dale K. DuPont, Correspondent

SOLID DEMAND Bookings on Mid-Lakes Navigation’s 11 Erie Canal Lockmaster charter boats “are exceptionally strong,” said Sarah Wiles, co-owner and marketing director of the Skaneateles, N.Y., company, which was founded in 1968 and began building its current fleet in 1987. People are feeling optimistic, “but there’s also a growing awareness 42

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Yacht StarShip launched a water taxi service in Tampa in February.

of the Erie Canal as a destination.” The company’s Lockmasters are available for three, four and seven nights. Mid-Lakes cleans and services each Lockmaster, provides a full orientation and driving lesson, and fuel for the rental period is included. Mid-Lakes also does day cruises on the canal and Skaneateles Lake and delivers mail on the lake. “2015 was a solid year,” Wiles said. “Things are looking better than that based on this time last year.” Elsewhere, American Cruise Lines added a four-night Columbia River cruise on the Queen of the West starting at $1,975 and four extra dates to its

WorkBoat file photo

eople are feeling the pull of the water from the Erie Canal to San Diego Bay. And that’s been good for passenger vessel operators who are gradually seeing a return to the good old days before the recession. They’re adding trips to existing itineraries, launching new services, and taking delivery of new vessels or refurbishing older ones. The river cruise market is especially hot. “We’re seeing a trend where a lot of people are not going overseas,” said Cindy Anderson, owner of USA River Cruises, a Vancouver, Wash.-based travel agency. They were considering it, but the political climate abroad has made them change their plans. This has benefitted the inland and coastal cruise market. Cruises on the Columbia/Snake River System are sold out, she said. Companies aren’t offering 2-for-1 discounts as in the past to lure passengers, but there still are deals on selected sailings. The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway are also gaining fans, as is a key link between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Anderson also predicts that Avondale, La.-based French America Line’s 150-passenger Louisiane — the newest entry on the inland rivers — will be full this season.

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eight-day Columbia/Snake sailings. It also reduced the ship’s capacity to 100 from 120 allowing for more crew accommodations, a spokesman said. On Aug. 22, French America Line will start cruising the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Red rivers, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway with the Louisiane, formerly the Columbia Queen. The 218'x66'x9' vessel, once part of money-losing Majestic America Line, is receiving a multimillion-dollar makeover before joining a growing fleet on U.S. waterways. Executives are confident the market will support the new offering. “The

The Louisiane, formerly the Columbia Queen, is being refurbished and will begin cruising in August.

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occupancy of the two other companies operating on the river is very high,” said French America President Tom Markwell. While they’re getting under way, one of the world’s major river cruise lines has postponed its U.S. market debut. Viking River Cruises last year said it would launch six Mississippi River vessels over three years starting in late

2017 and operate out of New Orleans. Viking, headquartered in Switzerland, said its U.S. fleet would meet Jones Act requirements. The vessels would be built at U.S. yards, crewed by U.S. citizens, owned by a Los Angelesbased investment management firm, and time-chartered to Viking. Then earlier this year the company said it was “actively working with relevant

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authorities to launch on the Mississippi River, with a projected maiden season that has been adjusted to 2018 in order to accommodate an updated timeline.” The company provided no further details. However, plenty of newbuilds already are on the way or delivered, including: two, 100-passenger coastal cruisers for Lindblad Expeditions being built by Nichols Brothers Boatbuilders and due out in 2017 and 2018; the Alice Ross IV, a 49-passenger tour boat recently built by Rozema Boat Works for Seattle City Light’s tours of Diablo Lake; and three, 600-passenger, 165'×34' vessels for New Yorkbased Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises Inc., under construction at GladdingHearn Shipbuilding, with the first expected in August. HMS Ferries, a division of HMS Global Maritime, New Albany, Ind., is developing a plan for a possible fast ferry pilot project connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa on Florida’s west coast. The two cities and two surrounding counties are to kick in $350,000 each toward the $1.3 million pilot project that would run from October to April 2017. The plan was expected to be delivered this spring to St. Petersburg, which is spearheading the effort. If they don’t like what they see, there’s no obligation to go forward, said HMS Ferries President Greg Dronkert. But if it’s a go, HMS has proposed time chartering the Provincetown IV, a 149-passenger, 98'×33'×7' aluminum catamaran built by Gladding-Hearn in 2013. Also in Tampa, Troy Manthey, CEO of dinner cruise operator Yacht StarShip, started a water taxi service in late February with three vessels that carry from 34 to 46 passengers and make a number of stops in the downtown area. Pirate Water Taxi is “going very well,” he said. “We are exceeding our projections.” Across the country in San Diego, Flagship Cruises & Events expects to beat the numbers logged before the recession took its toll, attributing the increase not only to an improving econ-

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/6/16 1:18 PM

omy but also to more strategic marketing. For example, they rebuilt their website and made it mobile friendly, and now more than half their customers are coming from mobile devices, said Tim Rongley, Flagship’s marketing director. The 100-year-old company has 11 vessels that offer harbor tours, dinner cruises and private events. “We’re close to double-digit growth over last year already,” he said. The only part of the business that’s down is whale watching, and that’s mostly because of weather. Weather’s a big factor for Miller Boat Line, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, which runs four passenger/vehicle ferries to vacation islands in Lake Erie. “Traffic has been steady and consistent,” said Bill Market, president. “We expect it to be a good year, if the weather cooperates.” So far, so good. The company started about three weeks earlier this year – in mid-March – compared to the last two years when they were hampered by ice.

The suffering worsens for OSV operators By David Krapf, Editor in Chief

he news emanating from the oil patch seems to get worse each month. In March, 45 million acres of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico were put on the auction block. Thirty companies turned in 148 total bids. Less than 700,000 acres were leased in what was one of the worst Central Gulf lease sales in the last two decades. In April, ConocoPhillips announced it would slash its 2016 capital expenditures budget by another $700 million, primarily driven by reduced deepwater exploration activity, deferrals, and cost reductions. About half of the cuts will come from the company’s decision to halt deepwater drilling in the Gulf. At Marine Money’s 6th Annual Houston Offshore Finance Forum in April, Todd Hornbeck, chairman, president and CEO of Hornbeck Offshore

The pace of rig and vessel stackings has picked up.

Bill Pike

YEARBOOK: OFFSHORE

Services Inc., said the industry “has not seen the bottom yet” in the Gulf of Mexico. The reason, Hornbeck said, is that oil and gas operators have not cut dividends, instead choosing to “make money on the backs of the service companies.” Liquidity is the “name of the game,” Quintin Kneen, president and CEO of GulfMark Offshore Inc., said at the forum. Operators need to focus on financials, improving banking relations, redoing covenants and modifying debt agreements, he said. During GulfMark’s first-quarter earnings call with analysts in April, Kneen said he anticipates “that the business will remain challenging for some time.” He offered a bleak assessment. “We will continue to resize ... as quickly as possible as industry conditions change in each of our primary operating areas. We continue to look for ways to liquidate older and underutilized vessels, reduce labor costs, manage our

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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capital expenditure commitments, and to achieve greater economies of scale from our general and administration spending. “Around the world absolute vessel demand continues to decrease as drilling activity declines and as E&P companies look to decrease their cash spend by achieving efficiencies and offshore production.” Hornbeck believes that the best way to cut costs and preserve cash during these lean times is to stack vessels. “If you don’t, and [you] work below costs, you are just damaging equipment for no reason,” Hornbeck said. The past several quarters have been especially brutal for OSV operators in the Gulf, and the first quarter was no exception. It “showed us little reason to be optimistic that a recovery will occur anytime soon,” Hornbeck told analysts during the company’s first-quarter conference call in May. “We simply have 45

5/6/16 1:33 PM

Eastern Shipbuilding Group

no near-term visibility to a scenario in which demand for our vessels will improve and have no expectation that the next several quarters will be much different from the last quarter. So for the time being, if you have been searching for a new normal, this is it. “Against that backdrop, our plan is pretty simple,” Hornbeck continued. “We will shrink our operating profile to suit the new reality for as long as it lasts. This will support our ability to preserve cash so that we can ramp up our operations as market conditions improve.” Hornbeck Offshore had 33 of its 68 total vessels stacked at the end of the last quarter. The company plans to increase the number of stacked vessels to 46 by the end of June. That will include six of its 300-class HOSMAX OSVs. Hornbeck said the company doesn’t feel that activity levels justify the costs to keep the 300s available for spot jobs. “We would rather save our cash and the

Hornbeck plans on stacking six more 300-class HOSMAX OSVs.

wear and tear on the equipment as opposed to waiting for jobs that pay little and ask much in terms of risk transfer sought by our clients,” he told analysts. Kneen said GulfMark’s Americas region, which includes the U.S. Gulf, is going through a more challenging time then the company’s other operating regions. “Boats we have working in the Americas region today are all in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The overall markets in Brazil and Mexico continue to be in a relative state of disorder.” Hornbeck described the current market as an “extraordinarily difficult period for our business.” To survive, he told analysts, the company would do everything it could to operate at cash

breakeven or better. The hope, he said, is to “exit this market cycle without having burned through our remaining excess cash of about $152 million.” “The only way we can do that is to not be sentimental about vessels that have no near-term prospect for work. By stacking them we preserve our vessels and our cash.” But Hornbeck offered a glimmer of hope. “We do have a fundamental belief that there will be a recovery and that our best chance to once again create value for our shareholders is to be in position with sufficient cash and relevant vessels to capitalize upon recovery when it happens.”

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Blount Wind Farm Vessel

Pioneer of the Atlantic

First U.S.-built offshore wind energy crewboat christened in Rhode Island.

By Kirk Moore, Associate Editor

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n aerial videos, the Atlantic Pioneer pirouettes with grace, turning tight figure eights with ease as its twin waterjets pump the equivalent volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 10 seconds. After skimming out at 24 to 25 knots to Deepwater Wind’s 30-megawatt offshore wind energy project at Block Island, R.I., that maneuverability allows the 70'6"×24'×4' aluminum catamaran to move easily among five turbine towers that will exceed 500' in height. The Atlantic Pioneer is the first U.S.-flag crew transfer vessel (CTV) engineered specifically to service offshore wind turbines. Inside a deckhouse isolated from hull vibrations, up to 16 wind farm technicians disembark from shock absorbing seats. As the captain

noses up to the cylindrical tower base, he presses forward on the throttle controls, putting in more power from the twin 1,400-hp Tier 3 MAN D2862 LE466 engines. Some of the boat’s 2,800 hp heats the fender against the tower steel, resulting in adhesion — stickiness that holds the Atlantic Pioneer tighter to the tower base, while technicians climb a podium stair to the bow and step off to the tower. “The boat is basically built around the technicians,” Charles Donadio, president of Atlantic Wind Transfers, North Kingston, R.I., said at the vessel’s April christening at the Quonset Point, R.I., terminal Atlantic Wind shares with its parent company, Donadio’s Rhode Island Fast Ferry. Atlantic Wind had the $4 million Atlantic Pioneer built at Blount Boats in Warren, R.I.,

Blount Boats

The Atlantic Pioneer underway in early April.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/3/16 5:19 PM

get any better.” Block Island Sound can have challenging weather and the U.S. version of the crewboat has a step up in power compared to its North Sea cousins. “It performs very well. It’s an upgrade to the boats we use in the U.K., with bigger engines and drives,” said T.J. Bailey, a training captain with Seacat Services Ltd., an offshore wind operations company based along with South Boat on the Isle of Wight, who has been training Atlantic Wind Transfers crew. “The result is brilliant, actually.” In the pilothouse the captain sits in a centered console with joystick controls, facing a suite of Furuno radars and instrumentation. “It’s very agile. The jets are a little overpowered, so it’s very easy to maneuver around the turbines,” said Capt. Chris Anderson.”

Training captain T.J. Bailey looks over the instrument array in the pilothouse.

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The crew transfer part is accomplished with a unique fendering system designed for the European industry by RG Seasight Fenders of Denmark. The black rubber heats through friction upon contact with the base of a turbine tower, effectively gripping the structure while technicians and equipment disembark. There are also corner fender sections by Ocean3, and welded split pipe along the sides. “You bump up to make contact, then put some horsepower into it,” explained engineer Luther H. Blount III. The energy translates to heat and adhesion. Luther Blount said he worked closely with Coast Guard officials, for whom the nation’s first wind CTV was a new experience. Blount has a long history building T boats, and “it was just bridging the gap to the new Subchapter L regulations,” said Coast Guard chief warrant officer

The bow fendering system adheres to the base of wind turbine towers to make crew transfers easier.

Kirk Moore

UK DESIGN Blount built the vessel under license from South Boat IOW, a British boat builder and primary supplier to the European wind industry. It is certified under both Subchapter L as an offshore supply vessel, and Subchapter T as a small passenger vessel, so it can also carry up to 47 passengers on tours of the wind farm site and nearby Narragansett Bay. The 21-meter vessel is the midsize in South Boat’s wind farm CTV lineup. Blount CEO Marcia Blount said her company is poised to build more boats as needed for other, bigger East Coast wind ventures. “We take pride in every boat we build,” Blount said. But the Atlantic Pioneer represents a special milestone. “It was built in Rhode Island for a Rhode Island operator, servicing a Rhode Island wind farm … it doesn’t

Kirk Moore

Atlantic Wind Transfers president Charles Donadio swings the champagne bottle as his family and Jeff Grybowski, right, president and CEO of Deepwater Wind, look on.

Kirk Moore

to service Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm project. After the five Block Island turbines are complete, the Atlantic Pioneer will serve in operations and maintenance support, under a 20-year agreement with Deepwater Wind. The deal was made possible by Donadio’s persistence and promise to bring the best technology, said Deepwater Wind president and CEO Jeff Grybowski. The arrival of the first U.S.-built vessel for the first U.S. offshore wind project is a major signal, Grybowski said. “This is a service vessel. That means this wind farm is tangible.”

5/3/16 5:19 PM

Blount Wind Farm Vessel Joe Miner, a marine inspector who often deals with Gulf of Mexico OSVs. The L boat rules call for damage stability criteria, and “because it’s a catamaran our vessel safety guys had to come up with equivalents,” he said. The CTV’s MAN engines turn Hamilton HM571 waterjets through ZF 3050 marine gears. The engine rooms in each hull have bright, cool LED illumination all around the MAN diesels. Trim is adjusted with two Humphree Interceptors. For firefighting there is a hydraulically driven fire pump on house station on the main deck. The onboard fire detection and alarm system is from SeaFire, with an Ansul manual release fire suppression system. In the cabin, three Dometic Cruisair seawater-cooled air conditioners with reverse cycle heat pumps regulate temperature. For heat during the offshore New England winters, there is a Kabola boiler supplying forced hot

ATLANTIC PIONEER Builder: Blount Boats Designer: South Boats IOW Owner: Atlantic Wind Transfers Mission: Crew transfer for offshore wind energy turbines Length: 70' Beam: 24' Maximum Draft: 4' Main Propulsion: (2) MAN D2862 LE466, 1,400hp @ 2,100 rpm Marine Gear: (2) ZF 3050 Waterjets: (2) Hamilton HM571 with MECS control system Ship’s Service Power: Cummins Onan 17kW Speed (knots): 26 service, 30 sprint

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Fendering

Safe Guards

Standard items go into custom fendering designs.

By Michael Crowley, Correspondent

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heck out the bow of any tug and it most likely has dense, black blocks of what appears to be rubber on its outer edge. Going aft, just below the deck level, there’s more rubber and around the transom as well. As opposed to the rest of the tug, the casual dockside observer probably sees little that’s particularly noteworthy about the material or design of the fendering. Granted, from one tug to another there is often a certain sameness or uniformity to the fendering. But there are differences. Each boat’s fendering design is a custom project, though the components that go into it are standard items, just used in different combinations, lengths and shapes. “It’s like Legos,” said John Rector, vice president with Morse Rubber, Keokuk, Iowa. “We

are using parts that look familiar and have been around for a long time and they get recombined in a fender system that meets the needs of the owner.” Not just any material will do. All fendering is black, but that doesn’t mean all black fendering has equal properties. “We are going up against foreign suppliers,” said Rector, “which are selling materials that does not meet minimum customary specifications for the rubber material. They can have field failures.” In April, Morse Rubber was preparing to manufacture fendering for a tug being built at Washburn & Doughty Associates in East Boothbay, Maine. When the two companies started working together some years ago, Washburn & Doughty sent Morse fenders that had been manufactured in

Morse Rubber

Reinauer’s 4,000-hp, 112'x35' tug Laurie Ann Reinauer uses Morse Rubber’s D-Modular fender, a weld-on fender. The D-Modular’s use on a tug is relatively new.

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much attention to it. The testing of fenders to monitor their physical properties once they’ve been installed onto a boat or dock is unusual. However, Rector recalled one case involving a pair of buckling column fenders that had been used on an ExxonMobil dock in Baton Rouge, La., that uses The Ocean Camel’s steel core and foam are over 400 Morse Rubencased in a non-marking urethane skin. ber fenders. ExxonMobil’s engineers were concerned with maintenance and ally camels have been made of wood. the condition of the fenders. So they The advantages of wood are low matewere sent to the Morse Rubber plant rial cost, easy to build with, and the and tested. New fenders of this type materials are usually readily available. should have “been capable of at least But the traditional wooden camel has 50 percent deflection,” said Rector, but a couple of potential problems. First, they blew up. “It was almost like an it can rapidly deteriorate. Thus wood explosion.” He estimates the fenders camels were treated with wood preseronly deflected about 15% to 20%. vatives to increase the life of the fender. While engineers at a waterside facilHowever, having preservative treated ity might have the time to mull over wood in a waterway did not meet with dockside fender performance, Rector everyone’s approval. California banned figures that tugs will operate until the the use of wood preservatives in the fenders are ready to fall off. state’s waterways because of the toxins that leach into the water, Thermos said. CAMEL UP That created a need for an alternative A good way to protect not only to the wood camel. Camels made from docks but tugs, ferries, cruise boats and recycled plastics were one solution, most other boats that tie up to landbut they could be too heavy and might based facilities is the camel, a float crack. Marine Fenders’ solution, said placed between a dock and a boat. It Thermos, was to develop a camel that differs from most other dock fenders in is “innovative, economical, robust” and that it goes across numerous pilings. It uses non-wood materials. The materiworks not by absorbing energy when a als have the flexibility of wood but last boat comes up against it but by distriblonger. It’s called the Ocean Camel. uting the load across the pilings. In place of a wooden beam for rigidTo do that, a camel must be rigidly ity, the Ocean Camel has a heavy-duty, designed to distribute the load over the corrosion-resistant steel core that numerous fendering piles. Otherwise distributes berthing loads onto fender “if you point load a fender pile you pilings. For buoyancy, the steel pipe could break it,” said Jerry Thermos, core is surrounded by monolithic, president of Marine Fenders Internaclosed-cell, rigid, urethane foam. Then tional, Wilmington, Calif. The comthe steel core and foam are encased in a pany recently completed a big camel “tough impact absorbing, non-marking project at the Port of San Diego. urethane skin,” said Thermos. It’s the Camels aren’t new when it comes to same material that is used in the comprotecting docks and vessels. Tradition- pany’s other fenders.

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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Marine Fenders International

India that hadn’t worked out. “It was natural rubber,” said Rector. “In the application of the boat there was a lot of rubbing back and forth. Natural rubber, if warmed up too much, will turn gummy.” In contrast, Morse Rubber (and some other fender manufacturers) uses the polymer ethylene propylene diene monomer, or EPDM. It’s a synthetic rubber that’s resistant to ozone and sunlight. It has been around for 40 or 50 years. However, it is a relative newcomer in terms of rubber polymers. In addition to a rubber’s composition, an owner of a new tug seeking fendering needs to be sure of a couple of things. First, how much energy can the fender absorb? “That’s usually taken off the bollard pull rating for the tug,” said Rector. Under normal circumstances, the bollard pull is the maximum load a fender will encounter. And the fendering must fit. Bow fendering has to be cut and radiused to the shape of the bow. That’s cured into the fendering at the plant. Of course, it all starts with designing the system. At Morse, shop drawings are worked up and forwarded to vessel owners for approval before any fendering is built. That tends to prevent any problems. Is it possible to place a life expectancy on the type of fendering that goes on a tug? Probably not, for the simple reason that there are different kinds of boats and different types of captains that operate those boats, Rector noted. “A wild-man captain can tear up fendering pretty quickly.” That’s the practical side. In terms of theory, Rector refers to The Vanderbilt Rubber Handbook, first published in 1942. It is a “semi-Bible” for those in the rubber industry, he said. The author states that somewhere between 20 and 22 years after being manufactured, a rubber compound will have lost about 50% of its physical properties. “Some manufacturers over-design a fender to get the longevity they want,” said Rector. “Most people don’t.” Though the 50% figure is a common rule of thumb, Rector said it’s likely that most operators aren’t going to pay

5/3/16 5:11 PM

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To advertise send details to: classifieds@workboat.com or call: 1-800-842-5603 MARINE GEAR & SUPPLIES

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America’s largest manufacturer of Underwater Lift Bags available fromus 25at lbs.the to 50 tons and Water Load TestShow, Bags toDec 50 tons. Visit International WorkBoat 1-3 Large inventory available. IMCA compliant. ABS Approved.

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www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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PortofCall

Your Source For Employment, Equipment & Services MARINE GEAR

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Utility Boats Work Boats Marine Engines Marine Gearboxes Shafts Propellers CALL FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF INVENTORY AND PRICING

Here is what Employment Advertisers are saying about WorkBoat Classifieds “Intracoastal Marine, Inc. found our ad placed in WorkBoat Magazine to be very beneficial. We saw a marked increase in applications as well as the quality of the applicants. Intracoastal Marine, Inc. will most certainly choose this avenue of advertisement in the future when our needs arise.” Meredith Law Safety & Compliance Manager Intracoastal Marine, Inc.

Please contact Adam Shaw (800) 842-5603 ashaw@divcom.com

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/3/16 10:44 AM

To advertise send details to: classifieds@workboat.com or call: 1-800-842-5603 MARINE GEAR

Selling a Boat or Equipment? Advertise It!...In WorkBoat Magazine to our 27,500 subscribers! WorkBoat readers:

For more information contact Adam Shaw: ashaw@divcom.com 800-842-5603 www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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PortofCall

Your Source For Employment, Equipment & Services SERVICES

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WATERFRONT VESSEL STORAGE AVAILABLE!

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WorkBoat Magazine: • Nearly 28,000 subscribers. • The only publication dedicated to the U.S. workboat market. • Get in front of only those invested in the commerical marine industry.

Adam Shaw • 800-842-5603 • ashaw@divcom.com www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

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PortofCall

Your Source For Employment, Equipment & Services TRAINING

Seeking Qualified Candidates? Advertise your employment opportunities

WorkBoat Magazine: • Nearly 28,000 subscribers. • The only publication dedicated to the U.S. workboat market. • Get in front of only those invested in the commerical marine industry.

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• Are qualified subscribers, and are the decision makers of the commercial marine industry (owners, operators, captains, engineers, etc.). • Represent $8.3 billion in purchasing power every year. • Have a very high action response after seeing an ad: 94.8% call or email an advertiser, or visit their website. • So contact us to find out more about advertising in the ONLY publication dedicated to the U.S. workboat market – WorkBoat Magazine.

For more information contact Adam Shaw: ashaw@divcom.com 800-842-5603 www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/3/16 10:44 AM

PortofCall

Your Source For Employment, Equipment & Services ADVERTISERS INDEX Advertiser

Page

ABS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Ahead Sanitation Systems Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 All American Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Aventics Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Bass Products LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Blount Boats Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Breaux Bay Craft Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Breaux Brothers Enterprises Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Brunswick Commercial & Gov't Products . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Burger Boat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 David Clark Company Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Duramax Marine LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CV3 Eastern Shipbuilding Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Elite Diesel Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 ExxonMobil Marine Fuels & Lubricants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Force Control Industries Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Fremont Maritime Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Fulton Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Furuno USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Great American Insurance Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Hamilton Marine Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Harken Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Imtra Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Advertiser

Page

Karl Senner, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CV4 Louisiana Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 MAN Engines & Components Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Marine Machining & Mfg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 McDermott Light & Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Metal Shark Aluminum Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Metals USA - Plates & Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Mitsubishi Engine North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Motor-Services Hugo Stamp Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 MTU America Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Nabrico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Nautican . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Power Panels, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Renishaw Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Research Products/Blankenship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 R W Fernstrum & Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Scania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Simrad - Navico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CV2 Vigor Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Volvo Penta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Washington Chain & Supply Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Worldwide Electric Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Yanmar America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2016: Advertising Planning Calendar Plan Your Classified Advertising in WorkBoat. Here’s what WorkBoat has coming up, the popular issues at hand, and where WorkBoat will be going to be distributed to give you an even further reach than our our natiowide subscribers.

Have over 27,100 qualified magazine subscribers, and thousands of bonus distributions to marine tradeshows across the country. WorkBoat is an extension of the International WorkBoat Show, our readers are the buyers and decision makers involved in the industry (owners, operators, engineers, captains, etc.).

Use the WorkBoat Classifieds to help you reach your target commercial marine audience! Issue

Special Feature

Vessel Report

Highlights

Tradeshow Advantage

July

Inland Waterways

Patrol Boats

Seating

- OMSA

August

Military

Barges

Electronics

September

Diesel Directory

Fireboats

Thrusters

www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

WB16_Classifieds_June.indd 63

- SMM - National Waterways Conference Annual Meeting 63

5/3/16 10:44 AM

LOOKS BACK JUNE 1976

• U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes fleet operators have adopted a resolution condemning proposals to adopt waterway user charges in both nations. Vessel operators said that a fuel tax would increase the cost of waterborne transportation by 4% to 5%. User charges, they said, are economically unjustifiable and not in the best interests of either nation. The resolution was

adopted at the annual joint conference of the Lake Carriers Association and the Canadian Dominion Marine Association. • Inland Rivers Ports and Terminals (IRPT) has urged Congress to remove environmental restraints that are hampering the expansion of ports and waterways. IRPT said that unless this is done, the industry will be unable to handle the increased cargo that JUNE 1986 is projected to move

on the inland waterways by 2000. IRPT said that federal and state agencies are halting terminal expansions because of fish and wildlife conservation concerns. In addition, these agencies are also preventing the establishment of large fleeting areas.

• Construction is underway on a $1.9 McAllister Towing of Florida Inc., million 130-class liftboat for Danos & with the delivery of the new 4,300Curole Marine Contractors, Larose, hp tractor tug Brooks K. McAllister. La. The Eric Danos, the fifth 130-class Built by Offshore Shipbuilding Inc., boat for the company, will be capable the 104'×34' tug is powered by twin of working in depths up to 90'. The Schottel 360° rudder-propeller drives 94'×63' liftboat will have a 6'6" draft in nozzles. and be powered by a pair of Detroit Diesel 12V-71-N diesel engines. • McAllister Brothers Inc. has launched its new shipdocking service JUNE 1996 in Jacksonville, Fla., • An $8.9 million Coast Guard contract awarded to Bollinger Shipyards Inc. has come under fire from the three losing bidders. The contract calls for the Lockport, La., shipyard to design and build the lead ship for the 87' Condor-class coastal patrol boat with options to construct an additional 50 vessels. The contract would be worth over $200 million if all 51 cutters were 64

WB_LooksBack_LINO.indd 64

built. Sources say formal protests were filed by Marinette (Wis.) Marine Corp., Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. Inc., and Swiftships Inc. The principal basis of the complaints is that the Bollinger-designed vessel will not meet Coast Guard specifications for speed, according to a shipyard official who requested anonymity. Contract protests are common and few are successful. www.workboat.com • JUNE 2016 • WorkBoat

5/6/16 2:16 PM

DuraBlue Composite Rudder Bushing ®

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DuraBlue Composite is used for rudder stocks, ®

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PROPELLING

EXCELLENCE

Karl Senner, LLC is proud to equip the M/V Granite Point with two REINTJES WAF 873 Reverse Reduction Gearboxes, and congratulates Tidewater Barge Lines on the delivery of the second vessel in their three vessel series.

ÂŠ2016 Stephen Cridland Photographer

Owner: Tidewater Barge Lines Shipyard: Vigor Shipyard

Karl Senner, LLC proudly represents:

WEST COAST Karl Senner, LLC. Seattle, WA (425) 338-3344

EAST COAST Karl Senner, LLC. New York, NY (917)722-8118

PADUCAH SERVICE FACILITY Karl Senner, LLC. 2401 Powell Street Paducah, KY

GULF COAST HEADQUARTERS Karl Senner, LLC. 25 W. Third St. Kenner, LA (504) 469-4000

WWW.KARLSENNER.COM (504)469-4000 WB_CVRS.indd 4

4/28/16 10:24 AM