HOUMA INDUSTRIES

Feature: Dutch Treat

By Larry Pearson For many years Houma Fabricators, Houma, La. built passenger boats, offshore boats and other steel hulled vessels much like a dozen other shipyards in the Gulf south. In the mid-90's they built several large gaming boats for Iowa entrepreneur Bob Kehl. If you hadn't stopped by Houma Fabricators for the past two years, today you would not recognize the place. Purchased by Shipyard De Hoop of the Netherlands in 2001, the shipyard has undergone an amazing transformation with an $8.6 million expansion. The Dutch shipyard is turning the 42-acre Houma site into a shipyard to resemble the company's main facility in Lobith, Netherlands. " So far we have added three steel preparation halls, four subassembly halls, new slipways with bulkheads and a permanent launching system," said O.M. Monnier, President and CEO of Houma Fabricators. A two two-story administrative center and engineering department has also been built. The building of these new facilities to some extend was accelerated by a contract from Otto Candies LLC, Des Allemands, La. for five 187-ft. diesel electric supply boats. The first boat in the series was built in the Netherlands bringing the total order to six. "In effect, we have been building boats while building a shipyard," Monnier added. The hull modules of the Candies' boat are being built in the new subassembly buildings.

Mississippi River Commission Schedules Meeting For Friday

Members of the Mississippi River Commission will conduct their annual low water public meeting in Houma on Friday, August 23, aboard the Motor Vessel Mississippi starting at 9:30 a.m., at the Cenac Towing Company Dock, at mile 53 on the Houma Navigation Canal. This will be the last of seven public meetings aboard the M/V Mississippi in communities along the Mississippi River. The low water inspection trip began August 11 in St. Paul, Minn

Waterways Re-Open

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Information Bulletin stating that all ports, channels, and tributary waterways in the COTP Houston/Galveston AOR are open to project depth. Particular caution is advised, though, in the Galveston Bay Entrance Channel, the Galveston Harbor Channel, and Barbour’s Cut due to possible shoaling. The U.S. Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Bulletin stating that all waterways in the MSU Morgan City AOR are open to project depth

New York Firm Building in Louisiana

September 11 set things back all over the world and especially in New York. But now a maritime firm in that city has a new tug building at Thoma-Sea Boat Builders in Houma Louisiana. The model bow tug, essentially a sister ship to one delivered last January, is a 3400 HP ocean-going tug, 100 by 32 feet with a molded depth of 13 feet 9 inches. Designed by Frank Basil’s Entech and Associates of Houma LA the boat will be powered by a pair of 16-cylinder Cummins KTA50 main engines rated for 1700

Tidewater Christens New Vessel

Tidewater Inc. announced that one of its new vessels, the M/V Pat Taylor, named in honor of the late New Orleans businessman, Patrick F. Taylor, will be christened on August 21, at the wharf of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Mrs. Phyllis M. Taylor, wife of Pat Taylor and current Chairman and CEO of Taylor Energy Company LLC, will christen the new 220-ft. platform supply vessel which was built by Quality Shipyards, LLC, a subsidiary of Tidewater located in Houma, La.

Bow2Stern Widens Customer Base With Acquisition

Bow2Stern/Engine Starting Products Announces Asset Acquisition of L&H Electric Co. Inc.   Bow 2 Stern Services / Engine Starting Products and its owners Harry “Buster” Naquin and Shane Thibodeaux are pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets of L&H Electric Co. Inc. from Shamrock Management L.L.C. of Houma.   “The acquisition broadens our customer base and brings additional products and services to our already diverse line of offerings

Transocean Reports GOM Incident

Transocean Sedco Forex, Inc., announced its second-generation semisubmersible drilling rig, Transocean 96, experienced an apparent anchor winch failure while under tow. An anchordropped and damaged the Poseidon Pipeline in Ship Shoal Block 332 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Oil was observed on the surface at the site, approximately 75 miles south of Houma, La. All appropriate government agencies were notified, and the pipelne was shut in by Equilon Pipeline Company, which operates the pipeline.

News: 8,000-hp Offshore Tug First With QSK60s

Cenac Towing of Houma, La., has long had a reputation for quality boats. Both their inland waterway push boats and their off-shore tugs are meticulous in their design, construction and maintenance. In the spring of 2000, the company commissioned a Cummins-powered 2,550 hp, 100 x 34-ft. triple screw off-shore tug, the Andrea Cenac. This May, Cenac is putting their newest and largest tug into service. As with their other new boats, the O.J. Cenac will be Cummins powered. At 130 x 38 ft

Small Yard, Big Boat

The Bayou Country of Louisiana has a reputation as a place where great boats are built in small yards. When Richard Adams Sr. opened his Lockport Fabrication yard on the bank of Bayou Lafourche at Lockport in 1979 he became a part of that tradition. Now, at 72 years of age, he comes in every day to work with his son Richard “Dickie” Adams Jr. Over the years the two men have launched a lot of boats from their yard. Recently, when they launched the supply vessel Bertha D stern first

Quality Delivers Deepwater Supply Vessels

Tidewater Inc. announced that it has taken delivery of the M/V Miss Jane Tide. The Miss Jane Tide is Tidewater's first VS 480 platform supply vessel built by the company's own Quality Shipyards, L.L.C. in Houma, La. The ship, designed by the Norwegian firm Vik-Sandvik, is the first of four identical vessels to be built by Quality. The Miss Jane Tide is a 260-ft. PSV and is the first domestically constructed vessel to be delivered under Tidewater's new construction program announced in January