Alaska Diesel Electric News

Geoff Conrad has been with Cummins Inc. Marine for 20 years and, according to the company, in those two decades has been instrumental in enabling Cummins to grow its commercial marine sales at a 20 percent compound annual rate. Cummins add that Geoff has led their efforts to refine and develop its marine product line and has recently worked on the Cummins 95L project. Reflecting on his life-long connection with the marine industry, Geoff Conrad has played a major role in helping to create the industry’s most comprehensive “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) model for fleet owners. Geoff brings with him a strong leadership and sales skill set and is well known in the Northwest among naval architects, builders, service centers, and among fleet owners.

Kvichak Marine Industries recently constructed and delivered the M/V John A.B. Dillard, Jr., a Debris Removal Vessel for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) San Francisco Bay District. The USACE San Francisco Bay District has a unique mix of duties, including keeping the navigation and shipping lanes of the greater San Francisco Bay region and its lower tributaries free of floating debris deemed as hazardous to marine vessels. This mission is especially demanding based on the diverse topography and ever changing weather conditions.

There are several quick conclusions you can draw about passenger boat construction in the new millennium. First it is a smaller market than 10 years ago with far fewer boats being built today than a decade ago. Secondly almost all of these vessels are built on the east or west coast. There are virtually no passenger boats being built in the south. Third, the number one vessel type being built is the ferryboat and more specifically the all-passenger ferry that shuttles people at 25 knots or better. In the years between 1987 and 1993 shipyards all over the country were building 600-passenger excursion-dinner boats in great numbers as sightseeing and dining vessels on America’s great rivers, lakes and bays became increasingly popular.

Vallejo Baylink, the San Francisco Bay community’s municipal commuter operation that was initiated five years ago, is now carrying some 800, passengers a year. With thousands of miles on the operation’s first catamaran ferry, originally known as the “Jet Cat Express,” an InCat vessel built by Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding, Vallejo Baylink management decided to send the well-used boat to Nichols Brothers Boat Builders’ Washington yard for a complete rebuild. In December, after nine months in Nichols Brothers’ Whidbey Island yard, the thoroughly renovated and enlarged vessel headed back home with a new name: M/V Vallejo. Marty Robbins, general manager of Vallejo Baylink…

Van Cappellen USA, the North American affiliate office of the Van Cappellen Consultancy - the Netherlands (noise and vibration control), announces a joint technical development contract with Alaska Diesel Electric - Northern Lights of Andover, Massachusetts. shelters for a separate primary US military logistics contractor. for this application largely on their track record for reliability and international distribution. Van Cappellen USA will supply overall technical design for a series of Northern Lights diesel generator sets destined to operate in the most extreme conditions. Noise, vibration and thermal profile attenuation will be achieved using design engineering from the Van Cappellen Dutch office. NoVitechniek brand name.

Elliott Bay Design Group of Seattle recently completed stability tests and calculations for the KLONDIKE SPIRIT, an all-steel side-wheeler recently built on the Yukon River in Alaska. The vessel, which can carry up to 120 passengers, will be used to take tourists on daytrips through the scenic Yukon canyons downriver of Dawson (Yukon, Canada) when it begins operation in June, 2005. Constructed in Eagle City, Alaska, by Nick Turner and Charlie House, the vessel offers three passenger decks, a food service galley and two staterooms for crews. Eagle City is located along the Yukon River approximately 9 miles west of the Canadian border. The KLONDIKE SPIRIT is the first side-wheeler to be built on the Yukon in decades.

Elliott Bay Design Group of Seattle recently completed stability tests and calculations for the KLONDIKE SPIRIT, an all-steel side-wheeler recently built on the Yukon River in Alaska. The vessel, which can carry up to 120 passengers, will be used to take tourists on daytrips through the scenic Yukon canyons downriver of Dawson (Yukon, Canada) when it begins operation in June, 2005. Constructed in Eagle City, Alaska, by Nick Turner and Charlie House, the vessel offers three passenger decks, a food service galley and two staterooms for crews.

Nichols Boat Builders is currently building a new $8 million dinner boat for Argosy Cruises, designed to resemble the bluff-bowed steamboats of the Mosquito Fleet that plied Puget Sound before the turn of the century. The 180 ft. vessel is expected to enter service along the Seattle waterfront in June 2000 carrying 800 passengers on three decks, according to John Blackman, Argosy board chairman and Matt Nichols, president of the Whidbey Island, Wash. boat building company. Powered by a pair of 7,000-hp Lugger engines from Alaska Diesel Electric, with power plants employing Twin Disc deep case reduction gears driving the vessel to a top speed of 11 knots.

Klondike Express, a double-hulled passenger catamaran, was delivered to Brad and Helen Phillips by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders. The vessel has a full load speed of 36 knots and carries 400 passengers on Phillips Cruises & Tours' "26 Galcier" sightseeing trip on Prince William Sound, out of Whittier, Alaska. The vessel was designed by International Catamaran Designs, Pty., Ltd., Sydney, Austrailia. It measures 132.7 ft. in length and 34 ft. in beam, with a 5.5 ft. draft. It will carry 4,000 gal. of fuel oil and 400 gal. of fresh water. Pacific Detroit-Diesel-Allison of Seattle supplied the 16V-4000 marine engines rated at 3,110 hp @ 2,000 rpm. Engines drive MJP 650 waterjets from Ulstein-Bird-Johnson through ZF Marine BU755-1 non-reversing 1.821:1 reduction gears.

Wesport Shipyard's 100-ft. Admiralty Wind has been chosen by Four Seasons Marine, in Alaska, to be its year-round vessel for two 38-mile round trips per day. The company already operates Westport fiberglass passenger boats on seasonal tours of the Inland Waterway. Admiralty Wind will make the two trips daily to Admiralty Island from Auke Bay near Juneau. The company transports miners to the island to connect with busses to take them inland to Kenicott Copper's Greens Creek Mine. Captain Robert Patronsky said, in addition to rugged dependability, speed is important for the service. The new 100 x 22.8 ft. vessel will have a cruising speed of 28 knots.