Plimsoll News

Push boat operator Plimsoll Marine announced it has taken delivery of the fourth vessel in a series of newbuilds from Master Marine, Inc. “Plimsoll Marine strives to provide the Lower Mississippi River with premier push boat services utilizing the industry’s most modern and capable fleet of vessels. The delivery of the Steel Skipper marks another milestone in that effort,” said Angus R. Cooper III, President, Cooper/T. Smith. “Our ongoing investment in building and maintaining…

In December 2021 Blakeley BoatWorks completed construction of Green Wave, a fully compliant, state-of-the-art Subchapter M inland push boat. Owned by Plimsoll Marine, the vessel will operate within the Cooper Consolidated fleeting footprint, the largest fleeting footprint on the Lower Mississippi River. All three companies are part of the Cooper Group of Companies.Designed by Farrell and Norton and built by Blakeley BoatWorks over the course of a year, the 70-foot long, 28-foot wide, 1,600 horsepower vessel is fully compliant with the latest U.S.

Bayou La Batre, Ala. shipbuilder Master Marine, Inc. (MMI) has delivered the 67’ x 28’ pushboat Rock Solid to Plimsoll Marine. The Rock Solid is the third of four vessels that MMI is scheduled to deliver to the Lower Mississippi River push boat operator.“The delivery of the Rock Solid marks another milestone in our effort to build and maintain our industry’s most modern and capable fleet of push boats,” said Angus R. Cooper III, President, Cooper/T. Smith. “Our team prides itself…

Master Marine, Inc. (MMI) has delivered the 67- by 28-foot Iron Lady, the first of four new push boats it is building for Lower Mississippi River operator Plimsoll Marine.The four vessels are designed by Entech Designs, LLC. and are fully compliant with all U.S. Coast Guard regulatory requirements.Towboat Iron Lady is powered by two Laborde Products, Inc. Mitsubishi 803 HP Tier III diesel marine engines operating at 1,400 RPM and coupled to Twin Disc 5321 gears. Laborde Products…

The State University of New York Maritime College, in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard, National Academy of Sciences, academic institutions, industry partners, and federal, state and local agencies, will host the 10th Annual Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS 2019) Nov. 13-15, 2019, at New York Maritime College located in the Bronx, New York.MRS 2019 will bring together academics, government and commercial entities to discuss the threats, challenges and risks associated with the Marine Transportation System with a focus on current and future marine transportation challenges and threats.

The Board of Directors of the International Propeller Club of the United States has selected Mr. John M. Cullather as its new Executive Vice President.In the role of Executive Vice President, he will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the International Propeller Club, will oversee all activities and functions of the International Propeller Club of the United States, and will serve as the primary liaison to the Club’s 70 port chapters worldwide. Along with the Board of Directors…

ABS said it has been awarded a Third Party Organization (TPO) contract by the Cooper Group of Companies to support compliance with U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Subchapter M requirements. “ABS anticipated the needs that would surface when the Subchapter M regulations were published and allocated resources to develop a range of solutions,” said ABS Americas Division President, Jamie Smith. The newly signed contract establishes ABS as the exclusive Subchapter M TPO for Cooper Group and its subsidiaries, Crescent Towing, Cooper Marine & Timberlands and Plimsoll Towing.

Valentine Maritime’s new derrick equipped pipe laying barge has accommodation for 300 people and a 1,600-ton crane mounted on a 120 by 31.7 meter (393.6X104-foot) barge. VM’s DLB1600 was built over a three-year period at the Nanjing Tianshun Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., in China. Registered in Panama, the barge has now been delivered to the Abu Dubai-based owners for work in the Arabian Gulf. The fully revolving 1,600 MT crane is electrically operated with a 70-meter main hook boom and a total of 76.9 meters to the tip of the auxiliary hook boom. The barge is equipped with pipe lay gear capable of laying 4-inch to 60-inch outside diameter pipe to depths of 300 meters.

The Rawasi and Morooj, a pair of RAstar 3800 Class high performance terminal/escort tugs, have just entered service with their Owner, Bakri Navigation Co. Ltd. of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Both tugs were built by NGV Tech Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia. The Rawasi was delivered to the Gulf region in late October 2009, and the Morooj in January 2010. The RAstar family of tug designs represents a truly unique and significant development in offshore tug design. The hull form incorporates a significant outward flare (or sponson) on the upper hull sides.

It is often said that humans learn more from their failures than from their successes. While the saying may be an exaggeration, there have certainly been a number of failures in the design and construction of ships that have resulted in improvements of future efforts. Some of those improvements have been forced on the marine industry by government regulation. More often, though, government regulation has been utilized to ensure that all players implement needful improvements that have been voluntarily adopted by forward-thinking companies.

Sarawak Slipways of Miri, Sarawak East Malaysia has delivered the 1179 gross tonne FPSO support vessel OMS Terra Nova. A pair of mains engines each generating 1838 Kw (2518 hp) at 750 RPM power the Niigata Z-Drives on the ABS-classed dynamic positioning vessel. In the focsle area a 700 hp Cummins KTA19-M4 engine powers a retractable HRP azimuthing bow thruster as an essential component of the vessel's dynamic positioning system. For electrical requirements, the 50 by 13.8-meter vessel has a pair of Cummins QSM11-powered 250 kW generator sets. Aft of the main house a double drum MacGregor Plimsoll double drum anchor handling winch is completely enclosed. A closed circuit television system allows the wheelhouse to monitor action around the winch.

Valentine Maritime (Gulf) LLC of Abu Dhabi has ordered a Plimsoll electrically-driven 10-point mooring system from MacGREGOR’s Offshore division – part of the Cargotec Corporation. The equipment will be installed on a subsea pipelaying vessel due for delivery from China’s Nanjing Shipyard in final-quarter 2008. The Plimsoll mooring winches – with 150-ton line pull and 225-ton brake holding ratings – will feature inverter drives and friction clutches for fast engagement and disengagement, and a mechanically-controlled dynamic drag brake for high speed payout of wire rope incorporating an anti-spinning function. The mooring packages will include a load and length monitoring system, deck fairleads and rigging sheaves.

The fact that the actual incidence of oil cargo spills as a percentage of global shipments is minuscule can never be a reason for any relaxation in the constant vigilance and unerring drive for risk minimization which must be practiced in all fields of tanker shipping. Certainly, there is no evidence of complacency. The industry's continual striving for improvements in vessel and system design, operating procedures, risk management processes and training has a powerful motivator in the increasing, manifold penalties associated with marine pollution. But professionalism and the striving to meet business objectives in a competitive world tend to be understated as the real drivers of advance…

In June 1998, Kvaerner Masa Marine signed a contract with NICO International of Dubai, U.A.E. to develop a 120 ton anchor handling supply vessel. This project was carried out by KMM's engineering group in Vancouver, Canada and gave KMM further involvement in the challenging and attractive market of "kit build" vessels. The twin screw anchor handling supply vessel Team Salalah has recently been delivered to its owners. The lead vessel of a series of six, it is the first vessel in the NICO fleet, custom designed for operations in both the extremes of the Persian Gulf and worldwide trading. Team Salalah measures 61 x 15.2 x 5.5 m, and is a standard supply vessel layout: 350-sq.-m.

MacGREGOR’s expansion into the offshore support sector continues with its latest acquisition, Vestnorsk Hydraulikkservice AS (VNH). The company is a service and turn-key system supplier to the offshore and marine industries, its main focus being offshore hydraulics service and products. VNH has a 1,100m² workshop suitable for service of hydraulic equipment in Ågotnes, west of Bergen, Norway. The company has net sales of €4.5 million and employs 21 people. Vestnorsk Hydraulikkservice AS is today owned by Vestnorsk Holding AS. VNH works fully in the offshore industry and carries out installation, troubleshooting and repairs on and off shore. About 80 per cent of its revenue comes from service, the rest from various hydraulic turn-key projects.

Cargotec’s MacGregor business area providing marine cargo handling solutions has established a new division, MacGregor Offshore. The acquired companies, Norwegian Hydramarine and Singaporean Plimsoll will be the foundation for the new division. The offshore division will be headed by Henrik Vildenfeldt who previously worked as SVP, Corporate Development at MacGregor. Vildenfeldt reports to Olli Isotalo, President of MacGREGOR. The new division employs approximately 700 people. Both Hydramarine and Plimsoll are included in MacGregor financials as of the beginning of April 2007. The new offshore division will focus on achieving targeted synergies from the combination of Hydramarine and Plimsoll and continue to build on future growth.

The MacGREGOR Group recently unveiled details of its new offshore division, a division made possible by the recent acquisitions of Hydramarine in Norway and Plimsoll in Singapore. The Offshore division will comprise more than 660 employees: 160 in Norway and 500 in Asia. In 2006, Hydramarine and Plimsoll had a combined turnover of approximately €104 million and a order backlog of €175 million. Both Hydramarine and Plimsoll are financially consolidated into the MacGREGOR Group as of April 1, 2007. According to the company, there are a number of strong synergies in combining Hydramarine and Plimsoll into one new business division. Business-wise…

Cargotec’s MacGREGOR business area providing marine cargo handling solutions has received significant offshore equipment orders. The equipment will be delivered during 2008–2010 and the value of the orders exceeds EUR 55 million. The orders include an order for anchor-handling and mooring winches delivered for Chinese shipyard Yangzhou Dayang. The shipyard is building 32 offshore supply vessels that will be delivered for French shipowner Bourbon. The other orders include several orders for a total of 23 knuckle boom offshore cranes. The cranes will be delivered for 11 offshore supply vessels which will be built in several shipyards in Europe, USA and India. MacGREGOR established in June a new division MacGREGOR Offshore.

At the end of October, Niigata Shipbuilding & Repair Inc. in Japan ordered five shipsets of deck machinery to be installed on 70m-long offshore anchor-handling tug/supply (AHTS) vessels being built for a Japanese owner. Three shipsets of equipment will be delivered in 2008, and the other two in 2009, and the total contract value is approximately $7.27m. Each deck machinery package features MacGREGOR Plimsoll-designed electro-hydraulic drive main winches, with a 200-tonne line pull and 300-tonne brake holding power. Also included are a service crane, a 300 tonnes SWL sharkjaw towpin, and a newly designed stern roller which uses a taper roller bearing instead of the conventional bush bearing type.