Boat Rentals News

Rodriguez Boat Builders, of Bayou LaBatre, Ala., will deliver one more of their popular lugger tugs to Central Boat Rental of Morgan City, La., at the end October. Designed for the specialized tasks of supporting shallow water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico they are as much supply boat as tug. Joe Rodriguez explains that the 65 by 24-ft. boat can work in water as shallow as five ft. While it features a model bow for open water work, it is designed to push a supply barge as well as to tow rigs and equipment from place to place. It also can transport liquids with tankage for 9,000 gallons of fuel and 12,000 gallons on potable water. Propulsion for the new boat, the Miss KerriLyn, is provided by a pair of Cummins N14 engines rated for 480 hp each at 1,800 rpm.

Rodriguez Boat Builders, of Bayou LaBatre, Ala., delivered one more of their popular lugger tugs to Central Boat Rental of Morgan City, La., at the end October. Designed for the specialized tasks of supporting shallow water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico they are as much supply boat as tug. Joe Rodriguez explains that the 65 x 24-ft. boat can work in water as shallow as five ft. While it features a model bow for open water work, it is designed to push a supply barge as well as to tow rigs and equipment from place to place. It also can transport liquids with tankage for 9,000 gallons of fuel and 12,000 gallons on potable water. Propulsion for the new boat, the Miss KerriLyn, is provided by a pair of Cummins N14 engines rated for 480 hp each at 1,800 rpm.

Family businesses are not only numerous in the offshore vessel owners arena, but among the shipyards that build these boats as well. Gulf Craft, owned by the Tibbs family, is an excellent example of a company that has been building aluminum boats during the last five decades and has prospered under two generations of family ownership, and is positioned for a smooth transition to the third generation. The shipyard is located in Patterson, La., along Bayou Teche. The yard was founded by Scott Tibbs in 1965 and began by building small aluminum vessels of all kinds. By the early 1970's, Gulf Craft built its first crew boat for Norman McCall Boat Rentals, a 75-ft. vessel named the Joseph Alan.

With several shipyards and marine operators in the area, Morgan City, La. is a center for crewing and supply of the Gulf oil industry. Since last January, a partnership between the Louisiana Technical College (LTC) and Cummins Mid-South has trained more than 120 diesel mechanics and engineers on aspects of high horsepower Cummins engines. As a distributor, Cummins Mid-South supports both their own and independent dealers in a network covering the states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. The training is available to Cummins dealers, customers and selected LTC diesel tech students. Training is also available to the Diesel Technology instructors of the LTC system throughout the state.

In recent years the demand for large crew boats has continued to grow in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and has increased in some foreign markets, such as West Africa and Mexico. As their size has grown, so has the horsepower employed by these boats as customers demand greater load capacities and greater speed. "The trend in the 170-ft. (51.8 m) class of boats is to more power and faster speeds," affirms Swiftships' A.J. Blanchard, at the Morgan City yard, "These boats have gone up in power from four 1,000-hp engines to four 1,350-hp engines and bigger jets. We've had more interest from both U.S. and foreign customers in all jet boats since the increase in jet size has removed concerns over the loaded speeds," Blanchard adds.

The one constant about the management of offshore vessel operating companies is the domination of family members of the founder. Except for the largest of these companies, Tidewater, Inc., that is a public NYSE-listed firm, most of the companies in this category, large and small, are run by the descendents of the founder. Many of these companies still bear the founder's name and most of the vessels are named after family members. In 1948, Abdon Callais converted a shrimp trawler into an offshore service vessel and that began a company that is in its third generation of providing transportation of fluids and cargo to offshore oil and gas rigs. Abdon's sons Harold and Ronald became involved with offshore oil buisness.

Four years into the new Millennium designers of workboats are incorporating new technologies and greater efficiencies into their designs to produce vessels that can do more work and do it better than designs of just a few years ago. This is very prevalent in the oil patch where today's supply boat designs emphasize more efficient vessels that can carry as much material to the rig or platform as vessels 30-40 ft. longer in years past. "Our new 207 ft. supply vessels can carry over 6,000 barrels of liquid mud," said Robert Socha, marketing manager of Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. "That is a key feature of these vessels that can work the new deeper gas wells on the shelf and also carry drilling liquids to the growing number of deepwater wells now in service," Socha added.

This January Gulf Craft of Patterson Louisiana will deliver the latest Seacor Marine crew boat the 180x32-foot Jenny McCall. Seacor Marine, with input from the father son team of Norman and Joe McCall, is noted for innovation in this highly competitive market segment. In keeping with this reputation the Jenny, powered by four 1800 HP Cummins KTA50 M2 main engines, will be equipped with the latest version of CSP Electronics controllable speed propulsion. The system allows the operator or the dynamic positioning system to achieve very precise shaft RPM against a constant engine RPM.

One of the often overlooked ways to enjoy a vacation to Hawaii is to charter a luxury yacht for a private cruise. There are many options for boat rentals in Hawaii, but they are typically old, rusty boats that are jam packed with tourists. Not exactly the best way to enjoy paradise. Luckily, there is an alternative. There are a number of luxury yachts in Hawaii (especially on the island of Oahu) that can take you for a private cruise far away from the sunburned hordes. Once the exclusive domain of the super rich, luxury boats can now be rented by the hour for a lot less money than you might think. Their is a large range of yachts available for charter ranging from luxury sail boats to vintage motor yachts.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the failure of Athena Construction to require its crews to pin mooring spuds securely in place on its barges led to an unintentional release of one of the spuds. This resulted in a pipeline rupture that killed six. Blanche Bay oil field in Louisiana, en route to a pile- driving location. side of barge IBR 234. The Miss Megan was secured astern of IBR 234 pushing both barges. a well in the bottom of the boat and used for mooring) on the Athena 106 released from its fully raised position. The spud dropped into the water and struck a submerged, high- pressure natural gas pipeline. The resulting gas released ignited and created a fireball that engulfed the towing vessel and both barges.

On August 11, the M/V Odyssea Voyager, a 195-ft. dive support vessel owned by Odyssea Marine, Inc., and operated by Odyssea’s North Bank Towing Division, was severely damaged by fire the cause of which is not yet known. Located in West Delta Block 35, the Voyager, in a four-point mooring configuration, was supporting diving operations of Superior Offshore International, Inc., when flames were noticed in a compartment in the bow section of the vessel. As the crew fought the flames, the fire spread and eventually engulfed the main cabin of the vessel. There were 40 people on board, including 26 passengers and 14 crew members, all of whom abandoned ship, and were brought to safety.

California Fish & Game recently took delivery of P/V Thresher, a 54 ft. all-aluminum catamaran, designed by Teknicraft of Aukland, New Zealand, and built by Kvichak Marine, of Seattle, Wash. The partially foil-supported catamaran will be stationed in Dana Point as a Fish and Game Marine Enforcement patrol vessel for Southern California. The cat's beam is 20.2 ft., and weighs nearly 28 tons fully loaded. Powered by twin Caterpillar 3196 DITA diesel engines, driving 30 in. stainless steel propellers through Twin Disc MG 5114A gears, Thresher cruises at 26 knots with a top speed of 30 knots. Deck equipment includes an aft deck A-frame to deploy and retrieve a customer-supplied Hurricane inflatable.

As the size and cargo capacities of crew boats has increased so has the combined and individual horesepower of the engines. Compared with 1998, the 1999 Cummins Mid-South order book for crew boat engines has shown a decrease in the numbers of six-cylinder KTA19 M4 engines that, with a 700 hp rating, has been the standard in the past. At the same time they have, to date, sold, for crew boat application, a total of 55 of the 12-cylinder KTA38 M2 engines with a Heavy Duty rating of 1350 hp at 1950 rpm. McCall Boat Rentals took delivery of Doreen McCall, its second 183-ft. model from Gulf Craft early in 1999. This will be followed by a third boat, Hull #424 to the same basic design, in November. Main engines for each of these boats are six KTA38 M2. McCall is also building two 165-ft.

April is the scheduled delivery date for a 64 x 28 x 9.5 ft. push boat for Stockstill Boat Rentals of New Iberia Louisiana from Inland Boatworks of Orange, Texas. The new boat will be the second delivered from the Inland yard to this customer; 54 x 22-ft. Mitzi Evelyn was delivered in December of 1997. The new boat, to be named Brian Paul, will be the owner's first pushboat with Cummins power. Propulsion will be provided by three Cummins six-cylinder KTA19 engines rated for 500 hp at 1,800 rpm, turning six-in. stainless shafts and 66 x 48-in. Rice four-blade bronze propellers through Twin Disc 516 gears at 6:1. This triple screw Cummins-powered propulsion package with its shallow draft and redundancy is becoming the industry standard for work on the Inter-Coastal Waterway.