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Vigor Shipyards News

11 Oct 2019

NSRP Awards Hepburn and Sons Laser Peening Work

The National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has awarded Hepburn and Sons LLC with the “Onboard Ship Integration of Laser Peening System for Lasting Aluminum Repairs.” The project team is led by Hepburn and Sons LLC and includes LSP Technologies Inc., Vigor Shipyards, ABS and NSWC Carderock Division. The NSRP investment is $1.78M and the industry investment is $1.96M. The duration of the project is 24 Months. The primary scope is to install a laser peening system onboard the Littoral Combat Ship for pre-weld and post-weld laser peening operations.Phase I will focus on the design and build of a laser peening Procudo system and a Beam Deck Delivery System and finalizing certification at NSWC Carderock Division.

13 Feb 2016

DARPA All Set To Launch Submarine Hunting Drone

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will launch in April a sleek, 132-foot warship from Portland, OR, testing its abilities over a succeeding period of 18 months. The ship is entirely autonomous, fully operational without an onboard crew. The Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, is scheduled to be launched April 17 from the Vigor Shipyards in Oregon. The ACTUV will continue sea-trials for 18 months following its maiden voyage, where it will be tested for its long-range tracking and self-driving functions. “Imagine an unmanned surface vessel following all the laws of the sea on its own and operating with manned surface and unmanned underwater vehicles,” said DARPA’s Deputy Director Steve Walker, according to the magazine National Defense.

17 Dec 2015

NSRP Selects Next Round of Shipbuilding R&D Projects

The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has selected a new round of research and development projects for award, as part of the program's continuing mission to reduce costs associated with U. S. shipbuilding and ship repair. These new projects, valued at over $14.5 million, including cost share, were among those proposed in response to Research Announcement 14-01, issued in June 2015. Objective: This project is a follow-on to the HiDep Weld Tfillet and Butt Weld Development RA project. It aims to implement the results of the new welding process to reduce weld distortion and improve productivity in shipyard panel construction. The new process utilizes induction heating technology and has minimal capital cost requirements.

15 Jan 2015

Rolls-Royce Propulsion for Alaska Class Ferries

Rolls-Royce has been selected by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, via its Alaska Marine Highway System, and Vigor Industrial, to provide a highly efficient propulsion system for its future Alaska Class ferries that will be built by Vigor Shipyards in Ketchikan, Alaska. The two Alaska Class ferries will feature a range of Rolls-Royce technology, including reduction gearboxes, tunnel thrusters and steering gears. A Rolls-Royce Promas propulsion system, which integrates controllable pitch propellers and rudders, will increase fuel efficiency and enhance manoeuvrability. "What is also exciting about this contract is that it represents the first time a ferry operator in North America will utilize our Promas integrated propeller and rudder system…

13 Jan 2015

Rolls-Royce Propulsion for New Alaskan Ferries

Image courtesy of Rolls-Royce

The new Alaska Marine Highway System ferries, to be built by Vigor Industrial, will feature Rolls-Royce propulsion systems. Rolls-Royce has been selected by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, via its Alaska Marine Highway System, and Vigor Industrial, to provide propulsion systems for its future Alaska Class ferries that will be built by Vigor Shipyards in Ketchikan, Alaska. The two Alaska Class ferries will feature a range of Rolls-Royce technology, including reduction gearboxes, tunnel thrusters and steering gears.

13 Jan 2015

Rolls-Royce wins AK Ferry Propulsion Contract

Rolls-Royce has been selected by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, via its Alaska Marine Highway System, and Vigor Industrial, to provide a highly efficient propulsion system for its future Alaska Class ferries that will be built by Vigor Shipyards in Ketchikan, Alaska. The two Alaska Class ferries will feature a range of Rolls-Royce technology, including reduction gearboxes, tunnel thrusters and steering gears. A Rolls-Royce Promas propulsion system, which integrates controllable pitch propellers and rudders, will increase fuel efficiency and enhance manoeuvrability. “What is also exciting about this contract is that it represents the first time a ferry operator in North America will utilize our Promas integrated propeller and rudder system…

29 May 2014

The OPC Sweepstakes: Three for the Money

Artist’s conception of the Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s OPC concept

In February, the U.S. Coast Guard chose three finalists to design its new Offshore Patrol Cutters, with awards to Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Fla. and General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine. Each company was awarded a Phase I design contract valued at between $21 million and $22 million. At the end of the 18-month Preliminary and Contract Design Phase I, the Coast Guard will choose one company’s team for a Phase II Detailed Design and Construction contract for the lead OPC.

16 Apr 2014

Shipbuilding: Vigor Industrial Grows Stronger

 Frank Foti, Vigor Industrial CEO

Vigor Industrial has ballooned from a modest shipyard in Portland, Oregon, to the largest shipbuilder in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Vigor increasingly thinks big and builds big. The company’s new floating dry dock will be the largest in the United States. And Vigor wants to get even bigger. CEO and owner Frank Foti expresses an ambition to grow to twice the current size in the “next few years.” Foti, who is also chairman of the Shipbuilder’s Council of America, says he is, “striving for critical mass.

19 Mar 2014

Coast Guard Icebreaker returns from Operation Deep Freeze

The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star is scheduled to return to their homeport of Coast Guard Base Seattle at 10 a.m., Friday, March 21, 2014, following a 108-day deployment of Operation Deep Freeze 2014. Polar Star departed Seattle Dec. 3rd, 2013, and made port calls in Honolulu, Sydney, Australia, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and Tahiti, French Polynesia. Having completed a reactivation that began four years ago, this deployment marks the first time in six years that a U.S. icebreaker has supported Operation Deep Freeze, the U.S. Antarctic Program’s resupply efforts of McMurdo Station, Antarctica. In January, Polar Star departed Sydney to assist in the rescue effort of two ships, the Russian vessel Akademik Shokalsiky and the Chinese vessel Xue Long.

10 Mar 2014

Vigor Shipyards Awarded USS Momsen Drydocking Contract

USS Momsen: Photo USN

The US Department of Defense, Navy, inform that Vigor Shipyards Inc., Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $30,703,417 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-award-fee contract to definitize a previously awarded undefinitized contract action (N00024-11-C-4401) for repair and alteration of naval assets. The DoD explain that this body of work is being awarded under an existing five-year contract for planning and execution of repair and alteration to surface ships while in drydock. The…

10 Feb 2014

USCG Assists Resupply of McMurdo, Antarctica

Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Paul Garcia)

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star successfully completed its breakout of McMurdo Science Station in Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze Wednesday. The cutter assisted by breaking a navigable shipping lane through 12 miles of  ice in McMurdo Sound, encountering ice up to 10 feet in thickness. The shipping channel through the ice created by Polar Star was used by the tanker ship Maersk Peary to deliver approximately three and a half million U.S. gallons of fuel  to McMurdo residents, allowing the station to remain manned and ready during the freezing winter months.

14 Jan 2014

Distortion Control "Tool Box" for Lightweight Ship Structures Workshop

This project compiles the physics and principles associated with distortion control derived from previous research and converts this knowledge base into a sequenced set of tangible, “shipyard friendly” implementation solutions designed to optimize several shipyard models. Distortion control modules will be designed and implemented to reduce the production rework associated with construction of lightweight ship structures. These modules will address the major sources of distortion, to include the welding and material handling processes. This project raises the technology readiness level of distortion control techniques to enable shipyard implementation.

14 Nov 2013

Climax: the ACME of Economics for Shipyards

Portable, cutting edge technology for critical shipyard applications. Discussions that involve global shipbuilding in today’s complicated economic environment are anything but a cut and dried proposition. For example, international shipbuilding, slowed by the overbuilt containership and tanker sector and a lingering recession, finds itself retrenching for the next boom and hoping to capitalize on retrofit and repair markets that will very soon be the beneficiary of mandatory ballast water treatment installations. Closer to home, a robust recapitalization of the domestic inland, offshore and even the bluewater sectors promises one of the longest cyclical upswings in history. Optimism for U.S.

08 Oct 2013

Vigor Renames Fabrication and Alaska Operations

Vigor Alaska

Vigor Industrial announced today that it has renamed two of the company’s subsidiaries. U.S. Fab, Vigor’s fabrication and shipbuilding subsidiary, is now Vigor Fab. Alaska Ship and Drydock, which operates the Ketchikan shipyard in Alaska, is now Vigor Alaska. “It’s about better serving our customers,” explained Frank Foti, president and CEO of Vigor Industrial. •Vigor Shipyards, which provides repair, maintenance and modernization services to the U.S. The changes apply to the names only and do not alter the operating structures of either subsidiary. The new names go into effect immediately.

12 Aug 2013

Laying the Keel; Carefully

The Kennewick ferry was completed at Harbor Island in Seattle in 2011.

Looking toward the future and with a weather eye on what could come next, Oregon-based Vigor Industrial launched a six-month training program this July in welding, fabricating and fitting with South Seattle Community College at a new center on Harbor Island. Vigor acquired the site overlooking downtown Seattle when it bought Todd Pacific Shipyards in 2011. And, as an active bidder for the U.S. Coast Guard’s coveted Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program, Vigor also knows that they’ll need to perform when the time comes. A skilled workforce will be an important part of that equation.

10 May 2013

World's Largest Tugboat Race Highlights Seattle Maritime Festival

Photo: Seattle Propeller Club

On Saturday, May 11, more than 30 boats will participate in the 28th Annual U.S. Oil and Refining Seattle Tugboat Race Championships, the largest tugboat race in the world. The race will run from noon to 3 p.m. as part of family fun day at the 2013 Vigor Seattle Maritime Festival, which will take place from Pier 66 and Bell Harbor Marina, 2225 Alaskan Way, Seattle. The race will start at the Grain Terminal, Pier 86, and end at Pier 66. Teams from various maritime businesses will compete from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the WorkBoat World Invitational Boatbuilding Competition at Pier 66.

17 Oct 2012

The OPC Race

Vigor Shipyard’s unique entry into the ongoing U.S. Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter Competition turns heads now, but ultimately may change how we look at Homeland Security on the water – for good. The U.S. Coast Guard’s well-publicized, although clearly flawed recapitalization campaign is alive and well. Spurred by the need to replace as many as 25 medium endurance cutters, the nation’s primary homeland security provider on the water has domestic shipbuilders queuing up to design and build its next generation vessel – the so-called offshore patrol cutter (OPC). At least three shipyards can be considered serious candidates for the first installment, but only one – to date – has succeeded in generating genuine excitement with an innovative design proposal.

10 May 2012

World's Largest Tugboat Race at Seattle Maritime Festival

The largest tugboat race in the world, the 27th Annual U.S. Oil & Refining Seattle Tugboat Race Championships, runs from noon to 3 p.m on Saturday May 12th 2012. More than 30 boats will participate in the races, which start at the Grain Terminal, Pier 86, and end at Pier 66. Go here for a full race schedule. Teams from various maritime businesses will compete from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Pacific Maritime Magazine Quick & Dirty Boatbuilding Competition at Pier 66. The teams have just $50 to build a finished craft and win a race later in the day. Judging on the boats is at 3 p.m., with the race at 4 p.m. Other Family Fun Day events include a survival suit contest in Elliott Bay, a competitive chowder cook-off, harbor tours and special activities for children. Admission is free to all events.

14 Jan 2012

Feeding the ERP Beast: Properly Integrating CAD and ERP

ShipConstructor Software Screenshot

ERP systems are beasts. To be happy, they have to be well fed. Computer Aided Design/Drafting (CAD) systems are a source of the food for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems since they contain significant information regarding the plans and materials needed to construct a ship. ERP systems are data hungry. They can only be effective at planning purchasing and production as long as the beast is consuming the information that the CAD system provides. In fact, there is a direct link between the success of an ERP system and how well it is fed the information it requires to do its job.

16 Dec 2011

NSRP Awards $17 million in R&D Projects

The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has awarded funding for five new research and development projects to continue the program’s mission to reduce the costs associated with U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair. These new projects, valued at approximately $17.1 million in both Navy funding and industry cost share, were among those proposed in response to a May 2011 Research Announcement. The NSRP collaboration periodically funds R&D projects…

06 Dec 2011

U.S. Shipyards Fight to Return Icebreakers to Service

The Polar Sea heavy icebreaker that the U.S. Coast Guard plans to mothball is in excellent condition and could be returned to active service in two years, giving the government a decade or more to search for longer-term solutions, a  representative of America’s shipyards told Congress last week. The United States currently has no active heavy icebreakers and only one medium vessel to protect rapidly intensifying national security and economic interests in the Arctic and Antarctic.

02 Nov 2011

VIGOR, US Fab Deliver Ferry to WSF

Receive Green Light to Begin Building Another. Shipbuilding to Generate More Than 500 Jobs at Two Dozen State Firms. One completed, one to begin. Even as VIGOR Industrial this week delivered the final new 64-car ferry to Washington State Ferries, the company’s US Fab shipbuilding division received a green light from the state to begin constructing the system’s next vessel. On Monday, the companies delivered the state’s newest ferry, Kennewick, to WSF, three months ahead of schedule.

24 Oct 2011

MSC: Backlog to Continue into 2012

Maritime Services Corporation (MSC), a marine interior company specializing in turnkey installations, reports that it has a backlog of contracts exceeding $10.5m in value for assignments to be completed this November through March. A $6 million contract with Princess Cruise Lines is now in fabrication at the company headquarters in Hood River, Oregon for the Sapphire Princess. Installation will take place in Victoria, B.C. in January. In addition, MSC will begin modifications on two dinner vessels next month for Portland Spirit in Portland, Oregon. Those jobs will also be complete in January. MSC’s Southampton, U.K. office will begin in November a $1.4 million refurbishment contract in Hamburg, Germany for Carnival, U.K. on the Oriana. Also next month, MSC U.K.