Bollinger: Building Around Inflation

Monday, May 05, 2008

With steel prices jumping by the week it has become increasingly difficult for shipyards to do effective costing in a contact to build a vessel that will take several months or even a year to build. At Bollinger Shipyard’s Lockport facility they have just delivered Slap Shot, number eight of Rigdon?s diesel electric series. The next two are well along and will deliver shortly.
Although yards are busy and demand for OSV type vessels is high, the next series of boats that Bollinger is undertaking will be built on spec. Usually the sign of slowing times in the industry, these spec boats are building for quite a different reason. With steel prices rising weekly, Bollinger's Robert Socha explained recently, it is virtually impossible to predict what it will cost to build a vessel at the outset of the project. So this set ofspec boats will not be sold until they are nearly completed and the materials cost are firmed.
The company has two designs under construction. A Gulf of Mexico class 193x40x15-foot DP1 OSV and a full internationally classed SOLAS DP2 210x56x18 OSV.
Both vessels will use all Cummins Tier 2 engines. The two 193-footers will have a pair of Cummins KTA50 mains rated 1600 HP each at 1800 RPM and turning 78x66-inch propellers through Twin Disc MGX5600 gears with 5.76:1 ratios. A Tier 2 Cummins QSK19 engine will power the single 600 hp Schottel bow thruster for the DP1 boat. Two Tier 2 Cummins QSM11 engines will power a pair of 250 kW generators and an additional QSK19 will power the Crane Demming fire pump for the 1,900 GPM Stang monitor.
The six 210-foot vessels will be powered by a pair of Tier 2 Cummins QSK60 engines rated 2000 hp at 180 RPM and turning 80x72-inch propellers through Twin Disc MG5600 gears with 5.76:1 ratios. The two 750 hp Schottel bow thrusters on the DP2 vessel will each be powered by a Cummins QSK19 engine. A Cummins QSK11 engine will power the 350 hp Schottel stern thruster. Three Cummins QSK11 engines will power the three 300 kW gensets. A Cummins QSK19 will power the same model fire pump as on the 193-foot vessel.