Rapp Hydema Us News

The group’s business in the United States is organized under the parent company, Rapp Hydema U.S. Inc., a holding company with three wholly-owned subsidiaries that are controlled from the headquarters in Seattle. Rapp Hydema Northwest operates a workshop and local production. Rapp Hydema AK is the service arm of the Alaskan office and runs an engineering yard in Dutch Harbor. Rapp Hydema Subsea (Houston) is responsible for the offshore market. The Rapp Marine Group has developed advanced machinery and equipment for the marine and offshore oil industries worldwide for more than 100 years.

Rapp Hydema has been supplying deck machinery to research vessels since 1977, but this global market recently became especially significant for the group. In 2002, in what would be a watershed project, Rapp Hydema was chosen to outfit the NOAA Fishery Survey Vessel (FSV) Oscar Dyson class of vessels. The first four ships in the class were being constructed at VT Halter Marine Shipyard. “That NOAA research vessel contract provided us with excellent exposure,” said Johann Sigurjonsson, President of Rapp Hydema U.S.

Rapp Marine Group recently acquired Hydra Pro Seattle, a crane manufacturing firm. Possessing both American Petroleum Institute (API) Spec 2C and ISO 9001:  2008 certifications, Rapp Hydra Pro is a rarity in the crane community. Hydra Pro also manufactures A-Frames, cylinders and other associated machinery. Hydra Pro’s clientele includes customers the offshore oil industry, the U.S. military, and various other marine subsectors, including ROV-handling. Kurt Manchester is the new Hydra Pro President; he has over 25 years of manufacturing experience.

Techcrane Global Corporation is a Covington, La.-based marine crane manufacturer/distributor who recently installed Techcrane Model F250-100 onboard Torch Offshore L.L.C.'s Midnight Wrangler. This was a crane custom-designed for Torch with a maximum capacity of 125 tons at 30-ft. reach. Time lapse between design conceptions to fabrication in Covington, La., was less than six months. The bid was awarded to Techcrane in December of 2002 for delivery in mid 2003 and is a part of the project to convert the Midnight Wrangler into a deepwater pipelaying vessel. In order to accommodate these deepwater arenas, a winch was specially designed by Lantec on behalf of Techcrane for the F250 to handle 8,000 ft. of two-in. wire rope.

Rapp Hydema U.S. has begun a major expansion of its industrial yard in Seattle, increasing its yard size by some 2700 sq. ft. Owing to a substantial equipment inventory, Rapp has leased space in recent years at a nearby Commodore Way yard from the Port of Seattle; the new yard expansion will, however, allow all that inventory to be more conveniently placed--on Rapp's own property. In order to utilize this back part of Rapp's original site, some 900 yards of fill dirt had to be removed; this material, forming a 8-ft. high plateau overgrown with a dense thicket of weedy growth, was what had been generated from the laying of the original yard area. Contractor Peterson Trucking & Excavation laid down 230 yards of rock (at a depth of over 24" in places) following soil removal.

Research Winches for R/V Maria S. Seven special winches were supplied by Hatlapa in December 2003 after being tested and demonstrated in the factory. These winches are intended for the new research vessel Maria S. Merian, which will support the vessel Polarstern during operations in the Arctic. Hatlapa has escorted this project for five years, during which time the design of the winches was formed in close cooperation with the order principal BAW (Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau) and the shipyard Krögerwerft in Rendsburg. One specialty is the combination of friction and storage winch for handling the very long and relatively thin measuring cables. The advantage is that the sensitive and expensive research ropes can be spooled on the storage winch free from load.