The Beast News

The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) launched a new research consortium—the Future Energy Systems Center—to address the climate crisis and the role energy systems can play in solving it. Randall Field, Executive Director, discusses current research and the challenges ahead for the maritime sector.The reputation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is such that it can take mammoth issues — such as driving the world to net zero — head-on, and suddenly make the impossible…

Navtor has inked a deal to acquire Ingenium Marine, a transaction subject to execution of definitive agreements. Once completed, Ingenium will become a fully integrated Navtor company and continue to operate from Mumbai, India, and Navtor will integrate digital logbooks into its e-Navigation and performance product portfolio. According to Navtor CEO Tor Svanes, this latest move will “transform the way the industry views traditional log-keeping,” unlocking a spectrum of benefits…

A newly formed dredging company has placed an order for what will be one of the largest dredges of its kind in the U.S. On October 12, Michael Kerns, President and CEO of Muddy Water Dredging, LP and Bob Wetta, President and CEO of DSC Dredge LLC, launched the project to build the custom 24” dual pump Marlin Class dredge to maintain U.S. navigable waterways.Muddy Water Dredging, LP (MWD) was established in late 2021 with corporate headquarters located in Orange, Texas. Co-owners Michael J. Kerns and Matthew B.

Brent Perry, CEO of Sterling PBES is a 40+ year veteran of the marine business, and one of the pioneers in delivering battery solutions to boats and ships at sea. Please give us a by the numbers look at Sterling PBES today?Right now we are sitting in a position where we had anticipated delivering somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-21 million worth of product, which is about 35 megawatt hours. And we’re scheduled to blow past that to almost $40 million. And we’re looking at the following year as a year of over a $100 million…

In 1765, a young, peasant woman left a remote corner of rural France where her impoverished family had scraped a living for generations. She set out on a journey that would take her around the world from the South American jungles and Magellan Strait to the tropical islands of the Indo-Pacific.Jeanne Barret (also Baret or Baré) was the first woman known to have circumnavigated the world. Abandoning her bonnet and apron for men’s trousers and coats, she disguised herself as a man and signed on as assistant to the naturalist…

UK-based autonomous work-boat company SEA-KIT said that its Maxlimer could be the first unmanned surface vessel across the Atlantic.The British drone ship is set to sail from the coast of Canada and attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean for Great Britain this fall in a voyage that could bring crewless cargo ships closer to reality.According to The Daily Beast, the Atlantic crossing is scheduled for sometime in the first half of 2020. Since Maxlimer has a range of 12,000 nm with its twin diesel engines, the journey is well within its technical specifications, and it is expected to take about one month to complete the voyage.The Maxlimer…

As the marine industry ponders decarbonization, the world’s first all-electric and completely emissions-free ship, Future of the Fjords delivers. Future of the Fjords was commissioned as part of the shipowner’s program of fleet renewal with  the backing of Fjord1, the largest ferry operator in Norway, and of Flåm AS, the company that  promotes tourism in the Flåm area, to provide vessels that deliver optimal passenger experiences with minimal environmental impact.Constructed by specialist shipbuilder Brødrene Aa…

The Arctic had its second-hottest year on record in 2018, part of a warming trend that may be dramatically changing earth's weather patterns, according to a report released on Tuesday by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration."Arctic air temperatures for the past five years have exceeded all previous records since 1900," according to the annual NOAA study, the 2018 Arctic Report Card, which said the year was second only to 2016 in overall warmth in the region.It marks the latest in a series of warnings about climate change from U.S.

The female dynasty of Vidalia Dock and Storage are no strangers to the Murky Mississippi, nor the advantage of a Mitsubishi powered vessel. When it came to repowering the Sonny J., Vidalia Dock knew right where to go.Purchased in early 2018, the vessel was fitted with a pair of 600HP Cummins K19 engines. With the goal of EPA Tier compliance and engine reliability, Laborde Products provided two fully mechanical Mitsubishi S6R-Y3MPTAW Tier III engines for the 65x24 vessel; these engines are rated 684HP @1800RPM each with Twin Disc 7:1 transmissions.

Breaking new ground: the all-electric, zero-emissions Future of The FjordsNorwegian cruise vessel offers amazing tourist experience while protecting fragile UNESCO World Heritage environmentFuture of the Fjords, the world’s first all-electric and completely emissions-free ship, launched in April this year by Norwegian tours operator The Fjords, is now operating as a cruise vessel on the spectacular Gudvangen to Flåm route along the Nærøyfjord, Sognefjord and Aurlandsfjord of western Norway.

The ownership of the Canadian firm Island Tug and Barge has changed with the purchase by the U.S. parent company Tidewater Inc. The firm is now known as Island Tug.The second tug, with the hull and superstructure completed and with the Cummins K38s installed still requires more work, was also launched in early May of 2018.The vessels were built in a warehouse on the Fraser River. With no launching facility and a railway track between the yard and the steep bank of the river, it took some innovative heavy lifting.

Winter sea ice on the Arctic Ocean covered the second smallest area on record this year, part of a thaw that is opening the region to shipping and oil exploration and may be disrupting weather far to the south, scientists said on Friday. The extent of floating ice likely reached an annual maximum of 14.5 million square kilometers (5.6 million square miles) on March 17, fractionally bigger than a record set in 2017, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said. Sea ice around the North Pole freezes to its biggest at the end of the winter in March…

Flights of Fancy? No longer a pipe dream, aerial drones find a home in maritime. Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates the global commercial drone market at $127 billion. Shipyards, offshore wind-farm developers, cruise lines, blue water cargo agencies, maritime marketing departments, first responders, admiralty lawyers, shore-to-ship package couriers, insurers, classification societies, salvors, container ports and the military are all using or actively exploring drones to accomplish tasks heretofore impossible without greater risk or cost.

The Fjords DA has confirmed that is building a sister ship to the diesel-electric plug-in hybrid Vision of the Fjords, launched in 2016. However, unlike its predecessor, this 42m long carbon fibre vessel will be all electric and completely emission free. The Future of the Fjords is slated for launch in April 2018. Currently under construction at specialist shipbuilder Brødrene Aa, the new vessel retains Vision of the Fjords’ eye-catching ‘mountain path’ design and environmentally friendly build, with a hull that minimizes wake and reduces shoreline impact erosion.

Ships have been sailing the seas for thousands of years, and with modern technological advances and innovation, the industry continues to improve and innovate. While in 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg that it couldn’t detect, today, connected devices, modern radar, sonar, data and GPS equipment are able to show where obstacles lie and re-route any ship onto a safer path, whether it’s carrying holidaymakers, LNG or cargo. Just as connected devices are making headway on land, with computer chips in cars…

Driving over a bridge, walking on a pier or even docking a boat are activities most people take for granted. Have you ever given any thought to how those structures are constructed over water with the ability to last for generations? For a marine construction company these projects are their lifeblood and it’s their skill and ability to build challenging marine environments around rivers, oceans and even swamps that make complex marine structures possible. One such company in…

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Myanmar's largest city of Yangon on Wednesday to denounce foreign criticism of the country's treatment of stateless Rohingya Muslims. About 300 people, led by about 30 Buddhist monks, shouted slogans against the United Nations and Western media, who they accuse of unfairly blaming Myanmar for a "boat people" crisis that has seen thousands of trafficked Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants wash up in Southeast Asia in recent weeks. Protest leaders argued that the vast majority of those who have landed or been rescued at sea were citizens of neighbouring Bangladesh, who were pretending to be Rohingya in order to receive refugee protection.

Profitability in shipping goes up and down in waves. 2012 wasn’t too bad, with annual operating costs shrinking by 1.8% on average versus 2011, when average costs rose 2.1%, but 2013 weighed anchor in the losses column for many. And 2014? So far the waters are choppy, with the overall mood up in May but dipping down in the quarter that ended in August, according to Moore Stephen’s quarterly Shipping Confidence Survey. Much of what worries the industry concerns issues over which it has little to no control – oversupply…

Twenty-two year-old crab boat's faithful Cummins diesel engines replaced with state-of-the-art version. Fans of the popular Discovery Channel series “The Deadliest Catch” thrill at the sight of the 113-foot, black-hulled Time Bandit’s bow rearing out of a cresting wave. Onboard men launch and recover 1000-pound crab pots while chilled Arctic seas wash over the working deck. In the wheelhouse, the crab boat’s skippers Andy or Jonathan Hillstrand monitor the deck crew and the boat’s electronic navigation equipment.

New York Cruise Lines, parent company of internationally celebrated tourism companies Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, The Beast and World Yacht today announced the appointments of Gus Markou to President and Chief Operating Officer reporting to Samuel Cooperman, Chief Executive Officer. Promoted from Vice President of Operations, Mr. Markou is a 25 year veteran of New York Cruise Lines and has been instrumental in the growth of Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, The Beast and World Yacht. As a long-standing member of the board of directors since 2005, Mr.

ERP systems are beasts. To be happy, they have to be well fed. Computer Aided Design/Drafting (CAD) systems are a source of the food for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems since they contain significant information regarding the plans and materials needed to construct a ship. ERP systems are data hungry. They can only be effective at planning purchasing and production as long as the beast is consuming the information that the CAD system provides. In fact, there is a direct link between the success of an ERP system and how well it is fed the information it requires to do its job.

“Gotchas” are pitfalls, catches, bait and land mines – a kicker, snare or snag. They are surprises and, in the world of insurance, surprises are rarely a good thing. ‘Gotchas’ can be caused by different things. It may be the age of the coverage forms; it may be case law has moved on beyond the policy’s intent. Or, it may be there is a ‘disconnect’ between policy wording and current business practices. Sometimes, these things occur simply because some insurance contracts are impenetrable. Insurance policies are a distinctly difficult set of documents to understand.

I must admit that exploring the historical nature of our business is one of my favorite endeavors, and this month we are pleased to continue our series of articles in celebration of our 75th anniversary. Patricia Keefe again graces our pages with her overview of the creation and fate of what is arguably the greatest if not most famous ship in the history of U.S. shipbuilding, the passenger liner SS United States. The SS United States is one of those ships that  has intricately interwoven itself into the culture of this industry…