Norman Mccall News

U.S. offshore vessel owner Seacor Marine  has acquired of three fast support vessels (FSVs) in exchange for the private placement of 603,872 shares of its common stock to domestic U.S. holders affiliated with the McCall family of Louisiana.The provider of global marine and support transportation services to offshore oil and natural gas and windfarm facilities worldwide has operated the acquired vessels for the past ten years under a revenue sharing pooling agreement along with four of its owned FSVs of similar specification.As part of the transaction, this pooling agreement was terminated. This will eliminate a negative adjustment in recent years to Seacor Marine’s revenue and Direct Vessel Profit (DVP) that resulted from allocations of revenue among the pool participants.

SEACOR Marine LLC christened its first CrewZer Class vessel, the SEACOR CHEETAH, in Galveston, Texas. Joyce McCall, wife of nearly fifty years to offshore industry pioneer Norman McCall, acted as the vessel's sponsor in recognition of her life-long contribution to the McCall legacy. The SEACOR CHEETAH was designed to provide customers a faster and more stable delivery platform than the industry standard. After examining various hull types, SEACOR chose the Catamaran's twin-hull design for its ability to reach top speeds in excess of 40 knots while increasing passenger comfort and safety.

Family businesses are not only numerous in the offshore vessel owners arena, but among the shipyards that build these boats as well. Gulf Craft, owned by the Tibbs family, is an excellent example of a company that has been building aluminum boats during the last five decades and has prospered under two generations of family ownership, and is positioned for a smooth transition to the third generation. The shipyard is located in Patterson, La., along Bayou Teche. The yard was founded by Scott Tibbs in 1965 and began by building small aluminum vessels of all kinds. By the early 1970's, Gulf Craft built its first crew boat for Norman McCall Boat Rentals, a 75-ft. vessel named the Joseph Alan.

Colin Black addressing the guests at the new vessel's commissioning. The Colin B. McCall, named for noted mechanical engineer Colin Black, is a 160 by 30 ft. crew boat with an aft deck that is 91.5 by 24.75 ft. that can carry 280 long tons with about 7,000 gallons of fuel on board. Seating is provided for a total of 68 passengers with 52 of those in business class seats. Main propulsion is provided by four Cummins KTA38 M2 engines delivering 1,350 hp each in a Heavy Duty rating at 1,950 rpm for a total of 5,400 hp.

The Colin B. McCall, named for noted mechanical engineer Colin Black, is a 160 by 30 ft. crew boat with an aft deck that is 91.5 by 24.8 ft. that can carry 280 long tons with about 7,000 gallons of fuel on board. Seating is provided for a total of 68 passengers with 52 of those in business class seats. Main propulsion is provided by four Cummins KTA38 M2 engines delivering 1,350 hp each in a Heavy Duty rating at 1,950 rpm for a total of 5,400 hp. A Thrustmaster 75 hp electric over hydraulic bow thruster is installed in a 24-in. tunnel. Electrical service is provided by two Cummins-powered 99 kW generator sets. The vessel's U.S gross registered tonnage in under 100 tons while the International Gross tonnage is under 400 tons. It is built to U.S. Coast Guard Subchapter T/L and ABS load line.

In recent years the demand for large crew boats has continued to grow in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and has increased in some foreign markets, such as West Africa and Mexico. As their size has grown, so has the horsepower employed by these boats as customers demand greater load capacities and greater speed. "The trend in the 170-ft. (51.8 m) class of boats is to more power and faster speeds," affirms Swiftships' A.J. Blanchard, at the Morgan City yard, "These boats have gone up in power from four 1,000-hp engines to four 1,350-hp engines and bigger jets. We've had more interest from both U.S. and foreign customers in all jet boats since the increase in jet size has removed concerns over the loaded speeds," Blanchard adds.

Four years into the new Millennium designers of workboats are incorporating new technologies and greater efficiencies into their designs to produce vessels that can do more work and do it better than designs of just a few years ago. This is very prevalent in the oil patch where today's supply boat designs emphasize more efficient vessels that can carry as much material to the rig or platform as vessels 30-40 ft. longer in years past. "Our new 207 ft. supply vessels can carry over 6,000 barrels of liquid mud," said Robert Socha, marketing manager of Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. "That is a key feature of these vessels that can work the new deeper gas wells on the shelf and also carry drilling liquids to the growing number of deepwater wells now in service," Socha added.

When Seacor Marine LLC became involved with the McCall crewboat fleet they very wisely kept the McCall family participation in the design and building of new vessels. Symbolic of the practice has been the tradition of including McCall in the name of all the fleet’s new crewboats. A few years ago the Colin B. McCall was named in honour of Colin Black whose many innovations in Cummins diesel technology were appreciated by Norman McCall and his son Joe. On December 5, 2006 at a naming ceremony for Seacor’s latest crewboat, Norman McCall once again demonstrated his love of innovation not only in the vessel, but even in the Christening ceremony. Standing on the bow of the 190-ft.