Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin News

Vard Accommodation said Wednesday it had changed its name to Vard Interiors. The company also said it had secured a new contract with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding."Vard Accommodation is changing its name to Vard Interiors to show more clearly the full range of products within the company, covering the full interior of the ship—decoration, furniture, piping, and HVAC-R," the company said."With the new name Vard Interiors, we strengthen our position as a deliverer of the complete interior of the ship…

Offshore service vessels, along with workboats serving harbors and inland rivers, have embarked on an industry-wide voyage toward reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses. Professor Craig Philip, a faculty member with Vanderbilt University’s Center for Transportation and Operational Resilience (VECTOR) and former CEO of Ingram Barge Company, provides this context: “The Maritime Sector has long provided shippers with the most fuel-efficient and sustainable freight transport option…

The Norwegian company HAV Group said Monday that its ship-design subsidiary, HAV Design, had signed a contract with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding to construct a newbuild service operation vessel (SOV) destined for the Coastal Virginia offshore wind project in the U.S.The ship will be built for CREST, a partnership between the U.S. company Crowley and the Danish company ESVAGT."The contract marks the U.S. breakthrough for HAV Design, which becomes the first European ship designer to develop an SOV for the U.S. market," HAV said.The U.S. plans to install 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

Fincantieri Marine Systems North America (FMSNA) has been awarded the maintenance contract for the U.S. Navy’s “Avenger”-class minesweepers. The program has a combined value up to more than $78 million.The Navy operates eight “Avenger”-class vessels, which are homeported in Bahrain and Japan. All of the vessels have diesel engines produced by Isotta Fraschini Motori, another Fincantieri’s subsidiary, of which FMSNA technicians are experts. All of the “Avenger”-class vessels were made in Marinette and Sturgeon Bay…

Vard Marine, a naval architecture and marine engineering company, recently completed the concept design of a new 5,400 cubic meter (CBM) LNG bunker barge for Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding.The barge is being designed for Polaris New Energy’s bunkering operations that will support LNG fueled ships in the east coast of the United States. It will be built at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and is expected to be delivered in November 2021.Vard Marine is currently developing a classification design package for the review and approval by the American Bureau of Shipping and the United States Coast Guard.The barge is designed with a philosophy of utilizing proven technology.

Legislation would close a loophole to strengthen Buy America standards that will support Wisconsin businesses, manufacturers and workers.U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today introduced the bipartisan Strengthening Buy America for Small Shipyard Grants Act to strengthen Buy America requirements for federal Small Shipyard Grant funding to support American businesses, manufacturers and workers. The bill is cosponsored by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA).While Buy American requirements already apply to the Small Shipyard Grant Program…

The ideal solution for the tightening regulatory noose also brings a different (and welcome) shade of ‘green’ for workboat operators.As the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ramps up enforcement of regulations that mandate that all vessels over 24 meters (78 feet) operating in US waters must switch over to EALs in all oil-to-sea interfaces before their next drydocking, it is an arguably good time to be in the lubricants business. At the same time, Thordon Bearings, a manufacturer of seawater lubricated bearings for the marine industry has its own thoughts on that very topic. Specifically, Craig Carter, Thordon Bearings’ Director of Marketing and Customer Service, asks, “What is the point in shipowners investing in costly bio-lubricants when seawater is widely available and 100% free?

Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding has signed an agreement with VanEnkevort Tug & Barge, Inc. to construct a new self-unloading barge for transportation of bulk products throughout the Great Lakes region. Measuring 740 feet in length (78 feet W, 45 feet H, 37,512 DWT), the vessel will be constructed in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. VanEnkevort Tug & Barge, Inc. (VTB) of Escanaba, Michigan is a growing company operating three articulated tug and barges (ATBs) on the Great Lakes. This newest self-unloading barge will be environmentally friendly and delivered with the first Great Lakes ballast water treatment system meeting EPA standards. Scheduled for completion in mid-2020…

The oil-to-water lubricated tailshaft conversion Thordon Bearings carried out last year to the 26,260dwt Great Lakes Fleet-managed bulk carrier SS John G. Munson has successfully completed its first season as a diesel-powered ship.The shaft conversion of the 1952-built self-unloader formed a key part of the mammoth 12-month power conversion project completed last year by Fincantieri’s Bay Shipbuilding yard, in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.The vessel’s steam propulsion plant was replaced with an energy efficient medium-speed diesel arrangement.

The Coast Guard presented the crew of the cargo ship Joseph L. Block with a lifesaving award in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Saturday. Capt. Amy Cocanour, the Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan commander, presented the Capt. David P. Dobbins Award to Raymond Sheldon, Thomas Garvey, David Schwarz, Keith Breyfogle, Basil Friend, Joyce Greenisen, Aaron Vonsprechen, Stephen Kowalski, Michelle Fetterly, Betty Benish, Guy Curtis, Roger Long, Carlos Ledezma, Kyle Long, Jeffrey Thompson, David Morrow, Nicholas McCall, Larry Noirot, Glenn Woodford, Ronald Fey, David Deverin, Shawn Bowman, and Gary Warner for their role in saving the life of a boater in Lake Michigan, August 2015. The Capt. David P.

U.S. Representatives from U.S. Coast Guard, the city of Sturgeon Bay and the Door County Maritime Museum dedicated the Coast Guard’s last operational 41-foot utility boat, Tuesday, during the Sturgeon Bay Maritime Festival. The dedication ceremony, held at the Door County Maritime Museum, was attended by Thad Birmingham, mayor of Sturgeon Bay; Capt. Amy Cocanour, commander of Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, and Capt. John Little, chief of staff of the Ninth Coast Guard District, as well as numerous local Coast Guard units.

The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards are working to break free the motor vessel Arthur M. Anderson, which is beset in ice near Conneaut Harbor, and turn it around in Lake Erie so it can head to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for its winter layup. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay, a 140-foot ice-breaking tug homeported in Detroit, has been just outside of Ashtabula for several days battling 8 to 10 feet of ice in areas and brash ice up to 5 to 6 feet thick. The progress has been slow in getting into Ashtabula, so the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon has been called to assist.

A $3.8 million ferry for Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry will soon be under construction at Moran Iron Works in Onaway, Michigan. The 85-foot, all-aluminum ferry—to be christened Miss Margy—is scheduled to carry its first passengers in July 2015. The keel will be laid in mid-January and the hull completed over the next four months. The ferry will then be launched through Moran’s Port Calcite Collaborative, a deepwater port in Rogers City, Michigan and transported to Shepler’s facility in Mackinaw City, where seating will be installed and painting done. The 281-passenger ferry, Shepler’s largest, will have a top speed of about 40 mph. Shepler’s currently has a fleet of five passenger ferries and one cargo vessel. Miss Margy will be a K Class passenger vessel built in accordance with U.S.

Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, a subsidiary of Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG), has been awarded a contract to build two 155,000-barrel capacity barges and two 6,000 HP tugs for Kirby Corporation. The vessels are to be operated as Articulated Tug-Barge (ATB) units and will haul petroleum and chemical products domestically. The first ATB unit is scheduled for delivery in the Fall of 2016 and the second unit will be delivered in Summer of 2017. Kirby Corporation…

Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG) subsidiary, Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, has been awarded a USCG contract for drydock repairs to the United States Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock (WLB-21) and a second USCG repair and sustainment contract for the icebreaker Mackinaw (WLBB-30). Hollyhock is a Juniper Class Seagoing Buoy Tender measuring 225-feet long. The Mackinaw is a 240-foot heavy icebreaker for operations on the Great Lakes. Both ships were built by FMG subsidiary, Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC), and launched in January 2003 and November 2005 respectively.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District awarded a contract for dredging at Duluth-Superior Harbor in western Lake Superior on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The $1,393,900 contract was awarded to Roen Salvage Co. of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The firm will dredge 114,000 cubic yards of material from the harbor and deposit the dredged material at the 21st Avenue West embayment, a shallow cove on the Duluth side of the harbor. The dredging will begin in mid-August and be complete by mid-November. Lt. Col. Robert Ells, District Engineer, said, “North America’s industrial and manufacturing heartland relies on the low-cost waterborne transportation of commodities such as iron ore, coal and limestone from Duluth-Superior Harbor.”

Great Lakes Shipyard is completing the replacement of the main propulsion control system on the United States Coast Guard Cutter Mobile Bay. This work marks the final installation under a five-year contract with the USCG’s Engineering Logistics Center, Baltimore, Md. This contract included installation of new main propulsion control systems for the entire fleet of nine 140-foot Bay Class of Ice Breaking tugs. The Shipyard’s mobile vessel crew is conducting the work on-site in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and is to be completed in early October.

Toledo, Ohio – The end of the Great Lakes dredging crisis came a step closer to reality yesterday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4348 and included a provision which could lead to substantially increased funding for Great Lakes dredging. The amendment directs that all funding collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be spent on dredging each year. Currently, the Fund has a $7 billion surplus. More than 16 million cubic yards of sediment clog Great Lakes ports and waterways because funding for dredging has been inadequate for decades. “Passage of H.R. 4348 with the Boustany amendment represents further progress in requiring that the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund monies all be spent on dredging each year…

Signal International, Inc., has landed a $94 million contract from Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, (GLDD) to build an Articulated Tug & Barge ("ATB") Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge. The 15,000-cubic-yard-capacity Dual Trailing Arm Suction Hopper Dredge with a 14,000-horsepower tug is believed to be the world’s first fully integrated ATB Dredge and the largest hopper dredge in the United States. The dredge barge dimensions are 410 ft x 92 ft x 36 ft (124.97m x 15.85 x 10.97m) with the tug measuring 150 ft x 52 ft x 36 ft (45.72m x 15.85 x 10.97m).

Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio, performs emergency repairs on USCG Aids to Navigation barge. United States Coast Guard Cutter Mobile Bay of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin departs Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio after completion of drydocking and repairs to the bow thruster on it 120-foot Aids to Navigation Barge. The barge was hauled out on Monday, September 17th using the Shipyard’s 770-ton Marine Travelift. The shipyard immediately removed the bow thruster and disassembled it in the shop for repairs.

Great Lakes Shipyard Performs Emergency Repairs on USCG Aids to Navigation Barge. United States Coast Guard Cutter MOBILE BAY of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin departed Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio after completion of drydocking and repairs to the bow thruster on it 120-foot Aids to Navigation Barge. The barge was hauled out on Monday, September 17th using the Shipyard’s 770-ton Marine Travelift. The shipyard immediately removed the bow thruster and disassembled it in the shop for repairs.

Unconventionally lowering costs, safely and improving the bottom line. That’s the Victaulic way. In the towing segment of the marine industry, sometimes it does seem that boats are under perpetual repair. A tugboat that’s tied up in maintenance and not able to work is a lost revenue opportunity. As a result, limiting time out of service by performing repair and retrofit services dockside is of critical importance. For example, McAllister Towing & Transportation was able to accomplish repairs not just quickly, but at a lower cost and in a safer manner than conventional methods.

A new 300 mt marine lift for Yank Marine is being installed at its Tuckahoe, NJ shipyard. This new 300 metric ton marine lift was transported from Marine Travelift in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on ten trucks and is currently being erected on site. It was purchased using a $961,676.00  grant from the Maritime Administration under the Assistance to Small Shipyards Grant Program, and will replace Yank Marine Inc.’s  existing 200 metric ton Marine Travelift. As Yank Marine Inc.