Sea Coast Towing News

Foss Maritime announced that two marine transportation veterans - one a longtime Foss manager and the other newly hired employee with extensive senior management experience - will take over key assignments at the company. Andy Stephens has been promoted to Vice President, Business and Planning Development, where he will be responsible for developing initiatives for the consolidated business activities of Foss Maritime. Stephens, who joined the company in 1993, will also become chief of staff to Foss Maritime COO and President Gary Faber. Meanwhile, Faber announced the hiring of Mike Magill, who will become Vice President, Technical Services. He will take over responsibilities for Foss' shipyards, purchasing and engineering departments; areas previously managed by Stephens.

On January 3, the Tug Pacific Avenger, while towing an oil barge loaded with diesel fuel, experienced a reduction in steering while approximately 20 miles west of Cape Alava, Washington. As per established procedure, Tofino Traffic, Canada, who, as part of the Cooperative Vessel Traffic Service manages vessel traffic of the northern Washington Coast, notified the U.S. Coast Guard of the incident. Sea Coast Towing, the owner of the tug, reported that the Pacific Avenger had experienced a problem with its autopilot and rudder angle indicator – a device that shows the position of the rudder. Although propulsion and manual steering were not affected, Sea Coast Towing arranged for a tug escort by the Barbara Foss and return to port as a precaution.

Friede Goldman Halter (FGH) has signed nine contracts with a combined value of more than $52 million, excluding options. The contracts are outlined as follows: Halter has agreed with Foss Maritime for the construction of a 98-ft. (29.8 m) harbor tug, with options to build two additional vessels; a contract was also signed with an undisclosed foreign operator for construction of two high-speed passenger ferries, with options for two additional vessels; Sea Coast Towing has contracted Halter to build an 80,000-barrel oceangoing double-hull tank barge, with an option for an additional vessel; Trinity Yachts has agreed with Halter for hull construction of a 192-ft.

Marine Resources Group announced that Kirstin Sandaas has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer and Kevin Orstad has joined the company in the position of Group Controller. Sandaas joined MRG in the spring of 2004, and since that time has worked closely with the financial and operating divisions at the MRG group of companies. Her contributions include assisting in two corporate acquisitions, implementing an MRG-wide 401(k) program and assessing enterprise-wide systems solutions. Prior to joining MRG she held the position of Director of Finance at Sea Coast Towing. She served as Finance Manager at Optiva, makers of the sonicare toothbrush, working as an integral part of the team that helped sell the company to Philips Electronics.

K-Sea Transportation Partners L.P. has agreed to acquire Sea Coast Towing, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. from Marine Resources Group, Inc., also of Seattle, for approximately $81 million. Sea Coast operates 15 tank barges and 15 tugboats, representing 694,000 barrels of capacity, of which 316,000 barrels are double-hulled. Of the remaining single hulled capacity, approximately 80 percent is eligible to operate in the Jones Act trades until January 2015, with the remaining capacity (one vessel) eligible until January 2008. The addition of these tank barges will represent a 27.1% increase in the barrel-carrying capacity of the K-Sea fleet to over 3.2 million barrels…