Maintenance Ship News

His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands will open the Seven Oceans Simulator center (SOSc) of MARIN, the Maritime Research Institute of the Netherlands, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.The opening program takes place in the Shallow Water Basin, one of MARIN's test facilities for ship models. Experts from the maritime research institute, the NL Coast Guard, Search &  Rescue Institution KNRM and maritime service providers talk about shipping safety, about working in increasingly busy seas and about involving the crew in the design of new ships.

Media reports about Mozambique’s failure to launch a fishing and security fleet and its subsequent $2 billion debt default seem destined to torpedo, or at least set back similar efforts to build needed coastal security and national fishing fleets across Africa. That must not happen.The systems and equipment Mozambique bought a few years ago from shipbuilder Privinvest could serve as a template for coastal African nations seeking to rightfully benefit from their natural resources…

Merchant mariner numbers may be at a low in the U.S., but the men and women of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) have increased their operating days by 245 percent from Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 to FY 2017.This year’s missions have included some of the largest ammunition movements since the Vietnam War – which the RRF crane ships are exceptionally cut out for; unit resupply to various theaters around the world, and movement of rotating forces including supporting the Canadian military.

Singapore-based Otto Marine sells Work Maintenance Vessel 'Oranda 1' for US$38.0-million, simultaneously bareboat-chartered back for GofM work. The sales transaction sets to improve the Group’s cash flow and balance sheet. Oranda 1, of LOA 75 m  is an ABS-classed 4,200bhp Work Maintenance Vessel that has completed 4 projects in South East Asia since May 2010. Contemporaneous with the sales transaction, the Group’s subsidiary, Karp Marine Limited, has bareboat chartered back the vessel for a period of 5 years.

Volvo Penta recently equipped two Kuwaiti workboats, a pilot boat and a buoy layer, with twin 34-liter diesel engines. Both vessels, which have been laid-up since the invasion by Iraq in the beginning of the 1990s, are now in service in the Kuwait City harbor. The rebuilt boats, M/V Muwasalat and M/V Mursheed, are owned by the Kuwait Port Authority and are operated by Naseb Maritime Company. Direct from the start, the demands placed on the work and material were high. M/V Muwasalat is a 300-ton buoy layer equipped with a 25-ton bow crane.

Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine has a fleet of 215 tugboats and 911 tank barges, the largest operator of its type in the country with about one-third of the total tank barge tonnage in the US. Its total transport capacity corresponds to 16.6 million barrels. Kirby is in the midst of re-engining its fleet and the new engines being installed are from Volvo Penta. Volvo Penta has delivered slightly less than 100 engines to date in sizes from 5 to 34 litres cylinder volume to boats in Kirby's fleet. More than 40 of the engines delivered are for powering the tugboats. These engines operate under tough conditions, in which each boat pushes a line of connected barges, in temperatures that are often 40 degrees C in the air and 25 in the water.

Damen Shipyards Gorinchem recently completed the research vessel Celtic Explorer for the Irish Marine Institute of Dublin. This 65 m ship was constructed by Damen in partnership with the Vlissingen yard of Royal Schelde and follows two other important vessels previously delivered to Ireland, the research vessel “Celtic Voyager” and the buoy maintenance ship Granuaille. The work to be carried out by this new vessel will include a National Seabed Survey in Irish waters, perform a vital role in monitoring and recording fish stocks, oceanographic tasks, and wide range of other maritime duties. The new vessel is only the third of its kind in Europe and represents a significant milestone in Irish marine research. The vessel will be named on April 11, 2003 in Galway, Ireland.

Dutch shipbuilding and engineering group IHC Caland NV said on Wednesday it received two new contracts worth a total of $250-300 million. IHC said it had received a letter of intent from the U.S. exploration and production arm of TotalFinaElf to build a deepwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The project, worth $150-$200 million, is expected to be completed near mid-2003, the company said. IHC's unit Giessen-de Noord received a memorandum of understanding to build a maintenance ship for offshore oil fields from Scotland's Wellships Group. That contract was worth about $100 million, IHC said.

Damen Shipyards Gorinchem has completed the research vessel Celtic Explorer for the Irish Marine Institute of Dublin. This outstanding 215-ft. (65-m) ship was constructed by Damen in partnership with the Vlissingen yard of Royal Schelde and follows two other important vessels previously delivered to Ireland, the research vessel "Celtic Voyager" and the buoy maintenance ship "Granuaille". The work to be carried out by this new vessel will include a National Seabed Survey in Irish waters, performing a vital role in monitoring and recording fish stocks, oceanographic tasks, and wide range of other maritime duties. The new vessel, which will be named on April 11, 2003 in Galway, Ireland, is only the third of its kind in Europe and represents a significant milestone in Irish marine research.