Improved Logistics Service from VT Halmatic
VT Halmatic announced a new Marine Products Spares Team to co-ordinate, support and process VT Halmatic spares orders. Based at Portchester Shipyard, the new dedicated team of specialists will focus on handling customers and owners requirements in a timely and cost effective manner. The team has many years experience in handling VT Marine Products equipment world-wide and has an industry leading reputation in keeping numerous naval, and government agencies working and maintaining serviceability of equipment fitted to many high speed ferry services. VT Halmatic expects its support to be faster and more competitive and now offers the full VT Halmatic…
Joint Venture Joins U.S. Forces
In the fall of 1999, the situation in East Timor was tense. The United Nations mission was cut off from reinforcement and resupply, with 430 miles of open ocean between the chaotic Indonesian island and the UN's nearest supply base in Darwin, Australia. Then the Royal Australian Navy's Jervis Bay, a fast ferry built by INCAT Australia Pty., Ltd. and chartered by the Navy, came to the rescue. Making hundreds of crossings in an average of 11 hours for each trip, with an average speed of 43 knots fully loaded, the 292-ft. wave-piercing catamaran's performance "stunned" the United States Seventh Fleet representatives attached to the UN mission, according to RAN personnel.
MDI RCA and Autopilot Secures Bureau Veritas Approval
Fast ferry and military craft motion control specialists, Maritime Dynamics, Inc. (MDI), have added Bureau Veritas to the classification approvals for their Ride Control System with Autopilot. MDI, part of the U.K.’s vosper Thorncroft Group, already has approval form Det Norske Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping for its RCS and Autopilot. The RCS monitors vessel attitude and automatically positions effectors to reduce accelerations arising from pitch, roll and heave motions. The additional MDI integrated autopilote provides commands to the vessel’s steering system to dampen yaw motions and provide heading control. Over 100MDI RCS have been supplied to fast craft throughout the world.
Money Talks
The American Shipbuilding Association has long bemoaned the level of U.S. Navy funding, arguing that the amount of spending on new ships would, in the future, leave the force woefully under-equipped to handle its duties of defense. Though the ASA is but the lobbying voice of the country's "Big Six" shipbuilders — by consolidation now reduced to, in effect, the Big Two — would be the primary beneficiaries of a spending splurge, it now seems the arguments presented were visionary, as the U.S. enters a gray area in international relations with the recent terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the resultant war in Afghanistan.
Developing the First 50+ Knot Ferry in North America
The North American high speed ferry market has been slow to develop compared with other areas such as Australia, Europe and the Far East. However, recent developments show the U.S. market is gathering momentum - not only in respect of the number of orders, but also with regard to the speed and sophistication of the ferry designs. This trend was emphasized when, in September 1997, one of the world's largest high speed ferry operators, Buquebus, placed a contract with Derecktor Shipyards in Mamaroneck, N.Y. for a high specification, 300 passenger ferry with a maximum speed of more than 50 knots. The specification for the ferry required a maximum contract speed of over 50 knots and a high level of seakeeping and passenger comfort.
