The Specialists: A Quartet of S. Louisiana Yards Builds Most U.S. Crew/Supply Boats
The area directly south of Lafayette, La., is authentic bayou country, known for Cajun culture, excellent food, unique music and, for boat lovers, the crew/supply boat capital of the world. Four boat yards in this area build these multi-engine, all- aluminum, speedy vessels, almost exclusively. Each yard turns out up to six crew/supply boats a year. In fact, three of the shipyards are located within just a few miles from each other in the tiny hamlet of Loreauville, La., a town that seems to be made up mostly of aluminum welders. That, of course, is an exaggeration, but not by much. Not every vessel delivered from these shipyards goes to work supporting the search for oil and gas…
FEATURE: A Family Tradition
The one constant about the management of offshore vessel operating companies is the domination of family members of the founder. Except for the largest of these companies, Tidewater, Inc., that is a public NYSE-listed firm, most of the companies in this category, large and small, are run by the descendents of the founder. Many of these companies still bear the founder's name and most of the vessels are named after family members. In 1948, Abdon Callais converted a shrimp trawler into an offshore service vessel and that began a company that is in its third generation of providing transportation of fluids and cargo to offshore oil and gas rigs. Abdon's sons Harold and Ronald became involved with offshore oil buisness.
New Propulsion System Improves Uptime, Power
The repower of Brother, a 140-ft. aluminum offshore crew/supply vessel with Cat 3508Bs, has reportedly improved efficiency more than 20 percent, and helped to decrease downtime significantly, according to Mike Dickinson, Eastern Division general manager for Graham Gulf Inc. of Bayou LaBatre, Ala. Graham Gulf currently operates five 140-ft. aluminum offshore crew and supply vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. All of the boats were designed and built by C&G Boat Works, a sister company of Graham Gulf, also located in Bayou LaBatre. Brother entered service in January 1998 powered by another manufacturer's 16-cylinder engines rated at 1,100 bhp. After more than two years of operation, Graham Gulf decided that the engines were not performing at the level required for the job.
