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A 260-foot fully operational paddle wheel riverboat, recently used as a large casino, is available for sale by negotiation. Asset management company Stuart B. Millner & Associates (SBMA) said it is currently accepting offers for the vessel before making plans to sell it through an auction in March. The riverboat is currently located on the Ohio River in Metropolis, Ill. More photos and information are available on SBMA’s website: sbmac.com.

Metal Shark Boats this week delivered the first new Response Boat-Small (RB-S) II to the U.S. Coast Guard's Special Missions Training Center at Camp LeJune, North Carolina. Designed to gradually replace the Defender-class RB-S as it reaches the end of its service life, the vessel is the first of 38 boats scheduled for delivery to the Coast Guard by April 2013. RB-S II's flexibility as a multi-function platform makes it ideal for use across the Coast Guard's full mission spectrum, including search and rescue, vessel boarding-team deployment, law enforcement, drug interdiction, and environmental response operations. Future deliveries will be assigned to various units including Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST)…

Military appetite for powerful and agile smaller platforms heats up. The use of small craft by terrorist organizations and domestic terrorist cells is a worldwide threat as demonstrated by the bombing of the USNS COLE. The attack on Mumbai, India, in November of 2008, brought the danger to the forefront. Nations realized that to combat this asymmetrical small craft threat, a similar small craft defense – not replacing, but in parallel with traditional larger platforms – is required.

Military appetite for powerful and agile smaller platforms heats up. The use of small craft by terrorist organizations and domestic terrorist cells is a worldwide threat as demonstrated by the bombing of the USS COLE. The attack on Mumbai, India, in November of 2008, brought the danger to the forefront. Nations realized that to combat this asymmetrical small craft threat, a similar small craft defense – not replacing, but in parallel with traditional larger platforms – is required.

Louisiana Manufacturer will Replace Coast Guard's Small Response Boat Fleet. Metal Shark Boats has been awarded a contract to replace the U.S. Coast Guard's fleet of Response Boat - Small (RB-S) vessels. Up to 470 boats will be delivered across the Coast Guard fleet, with an additional 20 boats will be available to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with another ten slated for purchase by the U.S. Navy. The $192 million contract is one of the largest boat buys of its kind for the Coast Guard, and provides a significant economic boost to the state of Louisiana.

MarineNews spoke with Dean Rosenberg, CEO of PortVision, about the company’s role in the coordination of the Deepwater Horizon spill response in the Gulf of Mexico. PortVision is a web-based service that uses data from the Automated Identification System (AIS), mandated by the IMO and the U.S. Coast Guard, to provide shore-side users with real-time vessel tracking as well as historical reporting. “The main purpose for AIS, why it was mandated, is for collision avoidance,” Rosenberg said.

Investigators are trying to retrieve data from a key piece of navigation gear recovered from the sunken B.C. Ferry Queen of the North. A Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the ferry's electronic chart device was recovered from the ship's bridge by the crew of a mini-sub during a dive last week. He says the device includes a computer hard drive, but it's too early to say if data on the drive will be intact. Two passengers are missing and presumed to have died after the Queen of the North ran into an island and sank March 22 south of Prince Rupert. (Source: www.canada.com)

There are no doubt scores of 15 to 20-year-old 180-ft. supply boats that still have years of useful life… if renovated by skillful and creative marine engineers. That is what ENSCO Marine Company, Broussard, La. has done with a six-pack of vintage supply boats whose day rates and utilization had slipped due to age and limited carrying capacity for their size. ENSCO Marine is a division of ENSCO International, a Dallas, Texas-based drilling contractor who owns and operates 56 drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Asia Pacific and South America. ENSCO Marine operates 23 offshore supply boats and five anchor handling tugs.