Hull Steel News

Uncontrolled flooding through a hole in the plating beneath the engine room of a fishing vessel led to its sinking in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday.The commercial fishing vessel Captain Alex was fishing offshore of Galveston, Texas on Nov. 25, 2022, when the vessel began flooding. The four crewmembers on board were unable to stem the flooding and evacuated to a responding U.S. Coast Guard boat. The sinking resulted in an oil sheen and debris field; a reported 17,000 gallons of diesel fuel were on board. There were no injuries.

Salvage, emergency response and marine services company Resolve Marine announced that its vessel the Resolve Pioneer has completed its ABS special survey and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) certificate of inspection following a drydock at Vigor Industrial in Portland, Ore. The drydock involved various technical upgrades, hull steel renewal, painting, overhaul and cleaning of the vessel.The 207-foot rescue boat is based in Western Alaska and provides critical emergency response and oil spill readiness 24/7. The Resolve Pioneer also helps to ensure that commercial vessels transiting U.S.

Military Sealift Command has awarded a $20,880,790 firm, fixed-price contract to Portland, Ore. shipyard Vigor Marine for an 87-day shipyard availability for the overhaul dry-docking availability of the underway replenishment oiler USNS Guadalupe (T-AO 200).Scheduled work includes the furnishing of general services, shipboard access, clean and gas free tank voids and cofferdams, preservation of aft ballast and cargo tanks as well as the flight deck, overhaul repairs to main engine turbochargers and HP air compressor…

Rapido Gee, a 42m steel monohull utility vessel, has been delivered and is currently in transit to the Middle East. The vessel will be operated by Rashied Marine Services in the service of offshore platforms. Designed by Incat Crowther and built by Strategic Marine, Rapido Gee is a further development of the design used for the 10 vessel fleet of Infield Utility Vessels delivered by the shipbuilder. In response to calls for construction simplicity, Incat Crowther reengineered the vessel with mild steel used in the hull in place of the original high tensile steel.

A comprehensive dry docking and life extension plan has been set out for the 62-year-old Finnish icebreaker Voima, continuing its run as the world’s oldest operational icebreaker. Commissioned in 1954, Voima is part of Arctia’s icebreaker fleet and has demonstrated its reliability in the Baltic Sea over the decades, serving as model for many four-propeller icebreakers built after it. In accordance with the life extension plan agreed upon by Arctia and Turku Repair Yard, Voima will move to the repair yard in Naantali…

Tall ship sailing specialist Star Clippers has announced that it has started building a fourth ship to add to its fleet of graceful square-riggers; its first new-build since the launch of Royal Clipper in July 2000. The new vessel, yet to be named, will be the biggest and most ambitious project to date and will be launched in the second half of 2017, carrying 300 passengers, measuring 8,770 tons and powered by more than 6,350 square meters of sails. The new ship will technically be a five-masted, square-rigged barque.

Zentech’s President Ramesh Maini announced that the company has been awarded a contract to perform an inspection and evaluation of the hull steel for the Naval Aircraft Carrier São Paulo, as part of the Brazilian Navy’s upgrade of this flagship vessel. Zentech will perform the work using the patented methodology of its ZAIMS (Zentech’s Asset Integrity Management Solution) system to assist the Brazilian Navy in assessing the sea-worthiness of the vessel’s hull. The initial work involves corrosion inspection…

Blount Boats signed a contract with American Petroleum & Transport, Inc. to construct a 79x23 foot, double hull, steel, fuel bunkering tanker for service in New York Harbor and New Jersey. The vessel, designed by Farrell & Norton Naval Architects, will be built to USCG Subchapter “D” specifications and admeasure to less than 100 GRT. The new tanker will be named Chandra B, and will replace the Capt. Log. Blount noted that the vessel will be powered by two, Tier III Cummins Model QSL9…

Serdijn Ship Repair has changed its name to ROG Ship Repair BV. As one of the leading ship repair companies, the yard in located in central, easy accessible and strategic location in the main port of Rotterdam. The terminal is a recognized port facility as required by the ISPS code, whereas efficient in and out “open sea” access is guaranteed due to being west of all bridges. "This change represents more than just a new name," according to Martin van Leest, Managing Director of ROG Ship Repair. The Rotterdam-based terminal has in and out open sea access. Alongside the jetties there are lay-by facilities for (marine, sea-going and Jack Up) vessels up to 19m length, 6m breadth and 9.5 m draft.

Incat Crowther announced the first deliveries of a 10-boat order for 42m Infield Utility Vessels to Brunei’s PTAS Marine. Developed in conjunction with builder Strategic Marine, the project called upon Incat Crowther’s track record in steel crew boats to meet strict performance criteria. PTAS has been contracted by Brunei Shell Petroleum to build and operate nine vessels to support their offshore platforms for a period of ten years. Incat Crowther supported Strategic Marine in their technical proposal for the project…

The design and construction of WWII Liberty cargo ships revolutionized shipbuilding by overhauling the blueprint process and standardizing on commonality of parts, welding, pre-fabrication and assembly line construction. Give me Liberty, or give me death!” a rallying cry of the Revolutionary War, got a second act in World War II. “Built by the mile and chopped off by the yard,” Roosevelt promised the no-frills Liberties would form a “bridge of ships” across the Atlantic. And they did. An exaggeration perhaps, but in truth, the Liberty wasn’t much to write home about.

Boksa Marine Design and Custom Steel Boats developed the CS 85. Designed specifically for an avid SCUBA diver and his family and friends, the CS 85, an 85 ft x 22 ft expedition style motor yacht, combines accessible exterior spaces with liveable interior spaces. There is a large dive locker located in the lazarette with easy access to the large swim platform. An Opacmare Transformer provides a large swim-up deck for diver access to the water. The deck crane, located at the aft end of the boat deck, allows for use of the crane over the aft end of the boat to handle large items such as a shark cage. Below decks, there are 3 guest staterooms for up to 6 guests and an option for 1 or 2 crew staterooms for up to 4 crew. An efficient steel hull and bulbous bow round out this green yacht.

Siemens Marine Solutions has received an order from China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL) to equip two special deep-sea vessels with propulsion equipment and integrated automation and control systems. The new vessels – one will be used for deepwater seismic research and the other for engineering surveys – will enhance COSL’s working capabilities in waters of up to 3,000 meters in depth. The order is worth about $32.5m. Delivery of both vessels is scheduled for the middle of 2011. China Oilfield Services Limited is part of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), a provider of integrated oilfield services for the offshore market. Up to now, COSL’s focus was on exploration activities in coastal waters.

The year was 1895. Grover Cleveland was in the second of his two nonconsecutive terms as President of the United States. In Mobile, Ala. a new shipyard opened at the ft. of Palmetto Street, named Harrison Brothers Dry Dock& Repair Yard, Inc. About 1915, it moved across the Mobile River to Blakely Island and they have been located there ever since. In 1958, the company opened a second shipyard about a mile south of the original location. Today the original facility is known as the Upper Yard and handles brown water repair and the Lower Yard is for blue water projects, although crossover projects do occur. Recently a 100-ft. barge came in for repair and the dry dock at the upper or brown water yard was not available to handle it, so the Lower Yard did the repair.

If you want to know what is happening in the workboat repair business talk to the people who do it every day. So I did. Allied Shipbuilding, Inc. in Larose, La. specializes in repair of all types of workboats. "Today the vast majority of our work is regulatory in nature, inspecting vessels for Coast Guard at five year intervals," said Danny Toups, yard manager of Allied. That typically involves dry-docking, inspection and often repairs of shafts, rudders and propellers. "Often we get involved in other repairs while the vessel is here…anything from engine or generator replacement down to rework of pumps, motors or whatever," Toups said. Business is good at Allied, although Toups would like to see more repowering and other types of conversion and complex repair work.

Jamestown Metal Marine Sales, Inc. has been awarded a contract by Blue Chip Casino, LLC, a subsidiary of Boyd Gaming, to construct a new casino vessel at Blue Chip's Michigan City, Indiana facility. The new vessel, which will replace the present vessel, will be approximately 400 ft. in length with a beam of 200 feet and provide about 75,000 square feet of gaming area on a single deck. In addition to the gaming area there will be another 85,000 square feet of back of house and future gaming areas on other decks. Jamestown was selected by Blue Chip Casino for this high visibility project based on Jamestown's significant experience outfitting casino vessels and managing other turnkey marine construction projects. This will be Jamestown's 26th casino project.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the AFL-CIO accused Aker Philadelphia Shipyard Inc. of undercutting the struggling U.S. shipbuilding industry by using too many foreign-made components in its new vessels. Aker, formerly Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, denied the allegations, and asserted it is leading the industry's rebirth by expanding its business using mostly local workers and suppliers. The war of words began after the labor federation's Metal Trades Department, representing about 600 Philadelphia shipyard workers, said Thursday that it was asking the Coast Guard to probe Aker's use of components and prefabricated parts from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and other South Korean companies.