Marine Builders News

Regardless of industry, the ability to continually meet potential new clients is the cornerstone to any company’s success. While the marine industry is well armed globally with traditional exhibitions, an emerging concept — the Hosted Buyer Event — is gaining steam as a viable and productive means to earn new business. “Hosted Buyer Events are quite commonplace on the automotive side of ZF’s business,” said David Santos, Product Line Manager – Commercial Craft, ZF Marine LLC.

Under New Ownership, Freeman Marine becomes part of the Advanced Marine Technologies Group. Freeman Marine Equipment Inc., a globally recognized brand and major US supplier to the worldwide marine industry, is now part of Advanced Marine Technologies (AMT). The company was purchased by AdvanTec Global Innovations of British Columbia, Canada. AdvanTec owns the four companies that make up the AMT Group. The other members of the group are Diamond Sea Glaze, Steelhead Marine and Manly Marine. Freeman Marine is the latest acquisition AdvanTec has made in its marine manufacturing division.

Construction is a complex business. Equipment can break down; employees can be injured; a project can go awry in unexpected ways. Add a marine element to the work underway, and the pitfalls that a contractor must navigate to manage risk become even more challenging. Marine contractors have long understood that they need specialized coverage and have sought out ocean marine insurance carriers with the expertise to help them. Each project they bid on, however, can come with a variety of special requirements.

Waxler Transportation Co. has taken delivery of the fourth in a series of five 3200 HP pushboats. The latest sister, the Angela Jean, was delivered to Secors inland transport subsidiary in July of this year. Others in this series of 99 by 35-ft towboats are the Dylan Wexler, delivered in 2007, the McKenzie Waxler and the Cynthia G. Esper, delivered in 2008. The Angela Jean has now joined the growing Waxler fleet. The Helen Merrill is scheduled for delivery in December of this year.

Construction has begun on a multiple-vessel order for push boats at Marine Builders, Inc. Indiana shipyard. The vessels are being built to the account of SCF Marine LLC.

Seascape Marine Builders, an affiliate of Seaforth Marine Group, both of Maple Ridge, has almost finished its 72-foot, jet-powered catamaran, titled appropriately, the Ultimate2, which costs about $7 million. The customer is a German client in the Dominican Republic. It took two years to build the boat, from scratch, in the Albion Industrial Park. The Ultimate2 is designed to speed across the water at 80 km/h on its hydrofoils.Two 1,650-horsepower Rolls Royce engines, which will power the water jets. (Source: Maple Ridge News)

Record gas prices, OPEC solidarity and a U.S. administration doling out incentives for exploration and production all add up to good news for those companies conducting business in or profiting from the offshore market. There is little doubt that the international offshore market, led by the Gulf of Mexico, is poised for a record rebound in the second half of 2001 and beyond. The tandem of high crude prices — spurred by OPEC's seeming solidarity on controlling output — combined with the emphasis on expanding offshore production by the new U.S. administration seemingly provides the proverbial "win-win" for all companies that makes its living finding and recovering resources, or those companies that supply vessels, products and services to the offshore oil business.

The USACE has put 59 ft. inland river towboat Davenport, built by Marine Builders, Utica, Ind., to work on the Upper Mississippi River system. The new steel-hulled vessel was designed by the USACE Marine Design Center, and is equipped with a galley and crew's quarters with accommodations for four. Davenport's primary duties include pushing rock barges and derrick boats, working year-round on the Mississippi River between Lock and Dam 10 and Lock and Dam 22, the Illinois River and connecting tributaries. It will operate out of the USACE's Rock Island District service base at LeClaire, Iowa. Propulsion is provided by two Cat 3406C marine diesels, rated 380 bhp at 1,800 rpm, turning Bird Johnson 48 x 34.6 in. wheels, through Twin Disc MG-516 4:1 gears.

The USACE has put 59 ft. inland river towboat Davenport, built by Marine Builders, Utica, Ind., to work on the Upper Mississippi River system. The new steel-hulled vessel was designed by the USACE Marine Design Center, and is equipped with a galley and crew's quarters with accommodations for four. Davenport's primary duties include pushing rock barges and derrick boats, working year-round on the Mississippi River between Lock and Dam 10 and Lock and Dam 22, the Illinois River and connecting tributaries. It will operate out of the USACE's Rock Island District service base at LeClaire, Iowa. Propulsion is provided by two Cat 3406C marine diesels, rated 380 bhp at 1,800 rpm, turning Bird Johnson 48 x 34.6 in. wheels, through Twin Disc MG-516 4:1 gears.

The USACE received a new tool for dam construction, repair and bank revetment work -59 ft. inland river towboat Davenport. Constructed by Marine Builders, Utica, Ind., the vessel entered service on the Upper Mississippi River system in December. The steel-hulled vessel was designed by the USACE's Marine Design Center, and is equipped with a galley and crew's quarters with accommodations for four. Davenport's duties include pushing rock barges and derrick boats, working year-round on the Mississippi River between Lock and Dam 10 and Lock and Dam 22, the Illinois River and connecting tributaries. With propulsion provided by two CAT 3406C marine diesels rated 380-bhp at 1,800-rpm, which turn Bird Johnson 48 x 34.6-in.

Launched in 1972, Marine Builders Inc. has remained a model of consistency, churning out a healthy mix of towboats and - more recently - passenger vessels, each year of its existence. Beginning with Quarto 1, launched back in 1971, towboat construction has always been the company's bread and butter, but the company has built drydocks, dredges, cruise vessels, barges; and has even formed a new sister company which builds pedestrian bridges over waterways. Company President and Owner David W. Evanczyk began his boat-building career in the 1960's with Yates Marine Construction, in Wheeling, W.V. Evanczyk moved to the Louisville area at the request of Jack Yates, with the intent to form a new shipyard company in the area.

The cyclical nature of the offshore exploration and production beast is legendary in financial circles, riding boom and bust waves for years at a time. While industry analysts and insiders alike had forecast a pick-up in activity no sooner than mid-year 2000, the collective industry is “itching” to get back to the business of building, repairing and supplying the myriad of rigs, boats and other business opportunities that abound in a full-blown boom oil market. Patience, it seems, is wearing thin, particularly in the face of dwindling business prospects and the lingering of the $30+ barrel of oil. While it seems all too natural that sustained high prices would sooner than later drive a resurgence of the moribund offshore business…

When contractors Brasfield & Gorrie accepted a job to rehabilitate a dam for a local power company, their first foray into marine work was far from routine. With no navigable passage into the deep-water side of the 150-ft. tall dam, most workboats couldn't even reach the job site. The Birmingham, Ala.-based company decided a new equipment purchase was their best option. They bought a 25.3 x 14 x 4.5 ft. tugboat and transported it in two pieces that were offloaded by crane and assembled on site. What this job required was a truckable tug. And as the company soon learned there were many more jobs that could take advantage of such a tug.