Workboat articles from May 2009

Workboat archives from May 2009

A tale of two markets.(Editor's Watch)(offshore vessels on demand )(Column)
May 1, 2009... The first dents in the offshore armor began to appear over a year ago. Now, as Jerry Greenberg writes in his annual report on the offshore industry (see page 54), it is indeed "getting ugly" offshore. But by getting ugly, we mainly mean the...

Reader says TWIC card is useless ... and worthless.(Mail Bag)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... I was dismayed after, reading the end-of-the-year report by Ken Hocke (WorkBoat, January 2009, page 30) that explained how smoothly the Transportation Security Administration is able to take our money and get TWIC cards in "less than two...

License renewal woes.(Mail Bag)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... I'd like to share my frustrating license renewal story. Hopefully it'll help someone out. On Oct. 20, 2008, my paperwork was turned in. My old license expired on Dec. 9, 2008. I was told to allow about two months. So I planned on going...

Watch your weight.(Mail Bag)
May 1, 2009... I recently received a call from a young man who spent over $2,500 to go to school to get his apprentice mate/steersman license, only to receive a letter from the Coast Guard denying him the license because his Body Mass Index (BMI) was over 40....

On the water: are paper licenses gone for good?(At A Glance)(Merchant Mariner Credential )(Column)
May 1, 2009... The Coast Guard's Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) consolidation program was scheduled to go live on April 15. The program will combine all Coast Guard-issued forms of paper--licenses, documents, certificates of registry, STCW...

Inland insider: where is the improvement?(At A Glance)
May 1, 2009... There is a myth that railroad mergers, despite reduced competition, promise to improve service. The reality is that post-merger rail service usually gets so bad that when it finally returns to its normal substandard levels, it is touted as...

WorkBoat Composite Index: Index rebounds in March.(At A Glance)
May 1, 2009... After big losses in the first two months of 2009, the WorkBoat Composite Index stormed back in March, gaining almost 7 percent. For the month winners topped losers by a 2-1 ratio. Still, the Index posted a losing first quarter. After giving...

OSV day rates: lots of unemployed rigs.(At A Glance)
May 1, 2009... U.S. Gulf rig employment numbers say it all. It is dismal out there. At the end of March, rig utilization stood at just over 63 percent, with 74 of 117 rigs contracted. That leaves 43 rigs, primarily jackups and submersibles, without a...

Legal talk: maritime justice: underway and making way.(At A Glance)
May 1, 2009... If you're not in the engine room, you think the deck department does all the work, right? It's always easy to overlook what you don't see. The U.S. court system is no different, quietly ruling on thousands of disputes, many of which...

Insurance watch: read the fine print.(At A Glance)
May 1, 2009... A contract's fine print can get you into trouble, especially if you don't understand it. Be sure to read the terms and clauses carefully, and ask others to read it over too. Here are a few you should know about: * "Hold harmless." The...

Deepwater program changes move forward.(NEWS LOG)
May 1, 2009... The U.S. Coast Guard is making a clean break from the joint venture running the $26 billion Deepwater modernization program. An ambitious effort to replace or modernize 15 major classes of Coast Guard assets as well as communications and...

Marinette gets green light for another LCS.(NEWS LOG)
May 1, 2009... The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program took a giant step forward recently when the Navy awarded a contract to a Wisconsin shipyard to build the third LCS. Marinette Marine Corp. (MMC), Marinette, Wis., built the first LCS, the Freedom,...

New Texas shipyard; Colonna expands.(NEWS LOG)
May 1, 2009... There's a new shipyard open for business in Texas. Sterling Shipyard, Port Neches, Texas, offers full-service repair and newbuild capabilities to the Gulf Coast workboat and barge market. Harry Murdock and Brad Taylor, both veterans of...

Coast Guard releases TWIC card reader rule.(NEWS LOG)
May 1, 2009... The U.S. Coast Guard has released long-awaited rules for Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card readers. The agency's advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) was published in the Federal Register in March. The...

Oil spill legislation for Buzzards Bay.(NEWS BITTS)
May 1, 2009... A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in March: would toughen regulations on single-hulled barges that ply Massachusetts' Buzzards Bay, the site of a 2003 barge accident that dumped up to 98,000 gals. of fuel oil into the bay. The bill would...

Next gulf lease sale set for August.(NEWS BITTS)
May 1, 2009... The Minerals Management Service will hold the next Western Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale in New Orleans on Aug. 19. The proposed lease sale 210 involves approximately 3,400 unleased blocks, accounting for about 18 million acres in the...

Budget bonanza: the Corps has more money, for now, but trust fund and other problems remain.(Corps Budget)
May 1, 2009... The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is facing an unusual but welcome windfall: more money than it has ever had to spend on the nation's aging inland waterways infrastructure. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Even as the economy tanks, the Corps'...

Tenderize: the Coast Guard seeks to replace its fleet of aging buoy tenders.(Inland Buoy Tenders)(United States. Coast Guard to repair its aging vessels)
May 1, 2009... The U.S. Coast Guard has taken the first steps to replace its aging fleet of inland buoy and river tenders, which maintain and repair aids to navigation along the inland waterways, coastal waters and on the Great Lakes. [ILLUSTRATION...

Kvichak builds foil-supported research cat for NOAA.(ON THE WAYS)
May 1, 2009... Although Kvichak Marine Industries, Seattle, has built many government boats over the years, the Bay Hydro is its first for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The new cat is now stationed at NOAA's facility in Solomon,...

Master Marine completes 135' supply vessel.(ON THE WAYS )(Gulf Resource Management uses offshore supply vessels from Master Marine Inc.)
May 1, 2009... Master Marine in Bayou La Batre, Ala., recently delivered an offshore supply vessel to Gulf Resource Management, New Iberia, La. The Luke Thomas was designed by Sterling Marine, Gulf Breeze, Fla., and is nearly identical to the Andrew Charles,...

Boatbuilding bitts.(ON THE WAYS)
May 1, 2009... A dual ceremony was held on the New Orleans riverfront in March, as Chem Carriers christened its first new towboats and also celebrated the company's 15th anniversary. The 80'x30'x9', 2,400-hp Frank W. Banta, named after the company's...

Geo Shipyard delivers 3,200-hp towboat.(ON THE WAYS)
May 1, 2009... In April, New Iberia, La.-based Geo Shipyard Inc. delivered a steel-hull, aluminum-superstructure pushboat to Orca Marine LLC, Lafayette, La. The 100'x34' Orca One was designed by Glenn Ring of Advanced Fabricating, Kemah, Texas. ...

Idle time: offshore slowdown continues as jackup rig count hits 33-year low.(Cover Story)
May 1, 2009... It's getting ugly offshore, and it's likely to turn uglier before it improves. In early March, nearly half of the world's idle rigs were in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, primarily jackups and submersibles. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Drilling...

First born: pushboat is the first from Gulf Island's new shipyard.(Boats & Gear)(Gulf Island Marine Fabricators designs towboats for Hunter Marine Transport)
May 1, 2009... There's a new pushboat plying the waters of the Ohio and Cumberland rivers these days. It's Hunter Marine Transport's 4,000-hp Danny L. Whitford. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 124'x34'xl0'6" towboat is the first vessel ever built at Gulf...

Communications break: new satellite services extend coverage areas and shrink equipment.(Boats & Gear)
May 1, 2009... Thanks to broader coverage areas and more compact hardware packages, at-sea services for broadband data and voice services have taken another step forward. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2007, London-based Inmarsat introduced its...

Rice Propulsion.(WB Business)(company celebrates its anniversary)(Company overview)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Rice Propulsion Is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The company, which was founded by Maximino Rice Martinez in 1909 in Mazatlan, Mexico, specializes in propellers and nozzles. Rice's Titan propellers come in 3-, 4-, and 5-bladed...

Passenger Vessel Association.(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... The Passenger Vessel Association's Associate Council has elected Phil Essex, tonnage coordinator for Germanischer Lloyd (USA) Inc., to serve as its representative on the PVA's board of directors. Essex has been a tonnage specialist for more...

John Hummer is the new head of the Maritime Administration.(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... John Hummer is the new head of the Maritime Administration's Northern California Gateway Office in San Francisco.

GE Marine will supply Samsung Techwin in Korea with LM500 gas turbines to power PK (X) patrol boats for South Korea's navy fast patrol boat program.(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... GE Marine will supply Samsung Techwin in Korea with LM500 gas turbines to power PK (X) patrol boats for South Korea's navy fast patrol boat program. The first PK (X), the Yoon Young-ha, has already been launched. Each of the PK (X) patrol boats...

ZF Marine.(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... ZF Marine LLC has moved into new North American headquarters in Miramar, Fla. The 60,000-sq.-ft. facility is located in the Miramar Center Business Park and nearly doubles the space of ZF Marine's former location in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The...

The Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) has renewed its alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... The Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) has renewed its alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The national alliance focuses on using OSHA's and SCA's collective expertise to help advance a culture of injury...

Samson Rope Technologies.(WB Business)
May 1, 2009... Samson Rope Technologies, a Ferndale, Wash.-based manufacturer of performance cordage, has expanded its Lafayette, La., synthetic-rope manufacturing plant. The expansion added over 35,000 sq. ft. The additional space accommodates new braiding...

Oil spill containment.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Ontario, Canada-based Murrenhil has developed the ROC Barrier, a new oil-spill containment product. Flats-No-More, Magnolia Springs, Ala., is the U.S. distributor. The ROC Barrier is designed to trap the oil, but to do so more quickly than...

Welding package.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Miller Electric Manufacturing Co., Appleton, Wis., has introduced its new Trailblazer 302 Air Pak--an air compressor, generator, and welding machine in one compact package. The Air Pak's rotary-screw air compressor delivers 70 psi to 160 psi of...

Electrical safety plugs.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Meltric Corp., Franklin, Wis., a manufacturer of industrial duty electrical plugs and receptacles, is promoting a line of switch-rated safety plugs and receptacles. Safety plugs protect workers by preventing exposure to arc flash and live...

Fuel filter/water separator.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp.'s Racor Division, a global leader in fuel, air, oil, and coolant filtration systems for internal combustion engines, is marketing its spin-on 490R-RAC-01 gasoline fuel filter/water separator. The...

GPS receivers.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Trimble Navigation Ltd. recently introduced two new Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers designed specifically for marine construction applications--the Trimble SPS361 and Trimble SPS461 GPS heading receivers. These dedicated marine...

LED backlight.(WB Products)
May 1, 2009... Alpha and Ultraview monitors from AmbientNAV now feature LED backlighting. Providing longer highbright life at low power and lower internal temperature levels, the displays' backlighting lasts up to 100,000 hours. AmbientNAV, Lynnwood, Wash.,...

WB Calendar.(Calendar)
May 1, 2009... April 29-May 1 INLAND WATERWAYS MEETING Inland Rivers Ports & Terminals Annual Conference, Drake Hotel, Chicago. 504-585-0715 www.irpt.net May 4-7 OFFSHORE CONFERENCE OTC '09, the 2009 Offshore Technology...