Fairhaven Shipyard News

A total of 5,300 gallons of Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings ensures that one of Washington’s most valuable assets will provide service for years to come. With a longstanding history of ferry operation in the Puget Sound, Washington State Ferries (WSF) was in need of a coatings company with just as strong of a reputation when preserving the 3,634-ton M/V Kaleetan auto/passenger ferry in the summer of 2015. Built in 1967 in San Diego, Calif., the M/V Kaleetan – which means “arrow” in Chinook – first went into service in early 1968 and was rebuilt in 2005.

The Port of Bellingham is poised to change the layout of 7.66 acres of industrial property in Fairhaven and build new infrastructure to support the expansion of two major waterfront employers, All American Marine and Fairhaven Shipyard. “All American Marine and Fairhaven Shipyard provide over 150 family-wage jobs to our local community” said Port Commission President Dan Robbins. The Port worked closely with both tenants to develop a strategy for improvements which better supports existing operations and plans for future expansion. The entire site is impacted by historic industrial contamination and is scheduled for a major cleanup effort so any suggested changes required additional analysis to ensure compliance with state cleanup regulations.

Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc., a Crowley company, has been contracted to provide naval architecture and marine engineering expertise to Fairhaven Shipyard of Bellingham, Wash. for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) upgrades and renovations to the Alaska Marine Highway System passenger/ vehicle ferry, M/V Kennicott. The $5.5m project kicked off in October 2009 and is scheduled for completion in February 2010. Jensen is developing detailed designs for upgrades and renovations to…

The Department of Transportation has announced 70 grants totaling $98m in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds that will be used to improve small shipyards throughout the United States. The funds, awarded through the Maritime Administration’s Assistance to Small Shipyards program, will help create and preserve jobs, provide valuable employment training and make much needed improvements to shipyards across the country. The Small Shipyards Grant program provides up to 75 percent in ARRA funds for a project and requires the remainder be matched by the shipyard. A detailed list of the grantees is as follows. •    Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc.,  Philadelphia, PA: $2,312,614, for the first year of training program.

Fairhaven Shipyards in Bellingham, Washington purchased a barge, Lucky Angel, with the intent of towing it from China to the U.S., refurbishing it and using it as a submersible dry-dock. The 435 ft long by 132 ft wide barge, renamed Faithful Servant, was loaded with an estimated 11,500 m3 – 19,000 m3 of ballast water from unknown Chinese coastal waters. The shipyard faced a dilemma:  conduct an open-sea exchange, easy but risky, or bring the barge into Washington state waters and proactively address aquatic invasive species prior to de-ballasting. They chose the latter.

The USCG reconvened its one-person formal investigation to determine the cause of the sinking of F/V Cape Fear and the loss of two of its crewmen. F/V Cape Fear sank Jan. 8, 1999 after radioing a distress call reporting they were taking on water. Three of the five crewmen aboard Cape Fear were rescued by the crew of F/V Misty Dawn. The USCG conducted an extensive search for the two missing crewmen. The body of one crewmember was located on a beach near Gooseberry Neck the next day. The last crewman was not located and the search was suspended on Jan. 9. Cape Fear has since been salvaged and was brought to New Bedford, Mass. on Aug. 15, by the vessel's owner. It was subsequently drydocked at the Fairhaven Shipyard in Fairhaven, Mass.