Ambrose Light News

JMS Naval Architects informs conversion work is nearly completed of the former oil spill response vessel OSRV Maine Responder to a pilot station vessel for Sandy Hook Pilots Association of Staten Island, N.Y. The conversion work contract was competitively awarded to Feeney Shipyard of Kingston, N.Y.The Sandy Hook pilots have been piloting ships in the New York harbor for more than 300 years. They operate a pilot station boat by Ambrose Light year-round and in all weather conditions.

On August 9, 1992 – 25 years ago today – the motor yacht Destriero set the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing, a record that remains unbeaten to this day. The monohull, built in 1991 in less than one year in the Fincantieri shipyard of Muggiano and Riva Trigoso, sailed 3,106 nautical miles without refueling, from Ambrose Light, N.Y. to Bishop Rock lightship on the Scilly Isles, England, in 58 hours at an average speed of 53 knots (reaching a maximum speed of 66 knots), claiming once more the Blue Riband, awarded in 1933 to the legendary transatlantic liner Rex. The yacht also set a record on its return journey, awarded the Virgin Atlantic Trophy by the English business magnate Richard Branson on September 5, 1992, as well as the New York Yacht Club Columbus Atlantic Trophy.

Will the prestigious TransAtlantic speed and endurance record ever be broken? Should it? Twenty five years ago headlines around the world announced a new world record, the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, by a ship built in Australia. Incat Tasmania reports that June 23, 2015, marks 25 continuous years that Incat built fast ships have held the record for the fastest Transatlantic Crossing. On 23 June 1990 Hoverspeed Great Britain, a ship (Incat hull 025) built by Incat in Tasmania…

A fire has broken out aboard the motor vessel Grey Shark at Homeport Pier in Staten Island, New York, Wednesday, The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reported. The USCG, FDNY, NYPD and the ship’s owners are working together to extinguish the blaze that ignited Sunday aboard the 360-foot Panamanian-flagged roll-on/roll-off vessel. The fire has been contained by the onboard firefighting system but has continued to smolder since the initial ignition. Grey Shark departed New York for the Caribbean Sea on March 11 with 13 crewmembers aboard. On Saturday, one of the vessel’s two engines had ceased to operate, forcing the ship to return to New York for repairs. On Sunday, at approximately 4 p.m., the vessel experienced difficulty with its second engine, causing the fire to break out.

The monohull, built in 1991 in less than a year by Fincantieri, sailed 3,106 nautical miles without refueling, from Ambrose Light, New York to Bishop Rock lightship on the Scilly  Isles, England, in 58 hours at an average speed of  53 knots (reaching  peaks of  70), and won once more the Blue Riband which in 1933 had been awarded to the legendary transatlantic liner, the Rex. Built at the shipyards of  Muggiano and Riva Trigoso, the Destriero was the largest ship in light alloy ever to be constructed and one of the vessels with the highest  concentration of  efficiency…

Twenty years ago headlines around the world announced a new world record, the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, by an Incat Tasmania-built ship. June 23 marks twenty continuous years that Incat-built fast ships have held the record for the fastest Transatlantic Crossing. On June 23, 1990 Hoverspeed Great Britain, a ship built by Incat in Tasmania, for operation between England and France by Sea Containers Ltd, broke the record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a commercial passenger ship.

The New York and New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots took delivery of America, the first of their new 53-ft. Pilot Boats built by Derecktor Shipyards in Mamaroneck, NY. The New York and New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots operate in one of the busiest ports of the U.S. and keep their boats stationed near Ambrose Light, tied up to a mother ship. From there the Pilot Boats can quickly respond to calls from incoming ships as they approach. America was designed by Camarc Small Ship Designs, a U.K. firm headed by Naval Architect Alistair Cameron. It is a modern boat with a fast efficient hull design that is designed to provide a top speed of 25 knots with an extremely smooth ride.

Every year, MarineNews chooses a handful of vessels delivered in the past 12 months and bestows upon them the distinction of “Great Boats.” The boats are chosen for innovations in design, construction and utilization. Following are the 17 vessels or groups of vessels chosen as the Great Boats of 2000. Crowley Marine Services delivered Alert, Attentive, and Aware, a series of three 140-ft., 10,000-hp Prevention and Response Tugs (PRTs), to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company in Valdez, Alaska. Specifically designed and developed for Alyeska, the boats will be used by Crowley in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System trade. Alert was deployed in February; Attentive was delivered in June, and Aware was delivered in July.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Coast Guard said a light tower off New York City has been substantially damaged by a tanker ship that slammed into it. The agency is urging boaters to steer clear of the Ambrose Light until it can be fixed. The Coast Guard says the tanker Axel Spirit rammed into the 76-foot steel tower damaging its legs. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Annie Berlin says the light is on, but no longer rotating and not reliable. No injuries or pollution have been reported. The Ambrose Light is about 12 miles southeast of Staten Island and about four miles outside the shipping channel to New York City. The channel is marked with other navigation aids. A Coast Guard ship is being sent to set up temporary navigation aids until the light is fixed.

On July 12, 2007, a member of the American Salvage Association (ASA) responded to White Sea, a 243-meter motor tanker, which ran aground near Ambrose Light, off Coney Island, New York. The tanker was outbound fully loaded with 548,000 barrels of Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (LSFO) when she reportedly had a steering malfunction and ran aground. Immediately upon notification, the ASA member mobilized a team of salvage experts, which arrived on site within hours of the casualty. The ASA member company’s salvage engineers, along with the SERT team from U.S. Coast Guard, worked through the day to develop a Salvage and Lightering plan and once approval was obtained from the Coast Guard, the salvage team worked through the night to remove 120,000 barrels of product from the grounded tanker.

Fourteen Senegal nationals arrived in Brooklyn today aboard a merchant ship after being plucked from their 60-foot catamaran about 800 miles east of Cape Cod, Mass., Saturday afternoon. All 14 rescued, reportedly in good physical condition, were placed in the care of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command Center received a distress report and diverted the "AMVER"-participating merchant ship OOCL Melbourne to render assistance. The merchant ship OOCL Melbourne was transiting from Barcelona, Spain to Brooklyn. A joint-agency boarding team of Coast Guard Sector New York and Customs and Border Protection officers met the merchant ship OOCL Melbourne at Ambrose Light Anchorage, about 12 miles outside the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Ambrose Light, a tower that has stood watch eight nautical miles offshore in the vessel approach lanes to the Port of New York and New Jersey since 1968, was replaced by a modern tower 1.5 miles southeast of the old tower's position. Offshore Specialty Fabricators, Inc., a marine construction company based in Houma, La., performed the two-week installation of the new and removal of the old light towers. The original square Texas oil rig-style tower - a familiar beacon to mariners for 31 years - was struck and damaged beyond repair Oct. 5, 1996 by tanker vessel Aegeo. Damage to the tower included removal of a 15-ft. section in one of its four legs. Temporary repairs were performed to stabilize the structure until the $4.5 million funding was available for the tower's replacement.

The U.S. Government, and particularly the U.S. Customs Service, has focused on cargo as a major risk factor with regard to the maritime security of the United States. The following is an outline of some of the measures being adopted or considered by the Customs Service in its efforts to enhance maritime security and the impacts of those measures on shippers, intermediaries, and carriers. By Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime Counsel, Haight Gardner Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C. The measures can be grouped into three general categories: inspections, risk reduction, and container security. Inspections occur both in the United States and abroad and involve both use of technology and physical inspection.