University Of Iowa News

Bollinger Shipyards delivered the USCGC Emlen Tunnell to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Fla. It is the 168th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the USCG in 35 years and the 45th Fast Response Cutter (FRC) delivered under the current program.Named to honor Coast Guard hero and NFL great Emlen Tunnell, the cutter is the fourth of six FRCs to be home-ported in Manama, Bahrain, which will replace an aging 110-ft. Island Class Patrol Boats. The USCG ships are stationed in Bahrain…

The fiercely competitive domestic boatbuilding industry looks for any advantage in the day-to-day battle for bottom line efficiencies. ‘XR Technologies’ offer an edge to shipyards as they grow their workforce.In the shipyard, skills such as welding and coating are in high demand. The ability to lay down a proper bead, or perfect the mil build on a ship’s hull can make the difference between a successful project and a failed inspection. XR technologies are valuable compliments to traditional training programs (XR is an umbrella category for virtual reality [VR]…

Kitsap Transit Approves $15 Million Contract for Two All American Marine High Speed Low Wake Ferries. Kitsap Transit’s board recently approved a $15 million contract with All American Marine, Inc. (AAM) for the construction of two additional Rich Passage-class passenger ferries. The new ferries will be designed to operate on Kitsap Transit’s current cross sound ferry route between Bremerton and downtown Seattle. The design of the new vessels is based upon the successful ultra low wake All American Marine built, Rich Passage 1. AAM was tapped as the sole source to build the vessels as the licensed builder of Teknicraft Design hulls in North America.

Marcia Kull has been named President of Torqeedo Group, Inc., and will direct global sales and strategy for the electric and hybrid marine propulsion systems manufacturer. Kull will oversee Torqeedo’s growth activities in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. The newly created position is an expansion of the current management team. She will assume her new role on May 1, 2017. Kull joins Torqeedo from Volvo Penta of the Americas, where she was most recently Vice President, Marine Sales.

Despite of some of the lowest fuel prices experienced in the last eight years, demand for ferry construction is at a seemingly all time high. The focus on building new ferries kicked off in early 2013 and the sustained interest is the continued result of an unleashing of pent up demand. Fleets have been aging and infrastructure needs to be built up in order to accommodate the future demand for commuter ferry travel once fuel prices return to and surpass their once familiar norms.

Offshore exploration is a history of man v. Prospecting for oil is a dynamic art. From a lake in Ohio, to piers off the California coast in the early 1900s, to the salt marshes of Louisiana in the 1930s, to the first “out-of-sight- of-land” tower in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico, the modern offshore petroleum industry has inched its way over the last roughly 75 years from 100 ft. of water ever farther into the briny deep, where the biggest platform today, Shell’s Perdido spar, sits in 8,000 ft. of water. As a planet, we have two unquenchable thirsts – for water and for oil.

HydroComp Inc. announced the addition of Ian Mutnick as Special Projects Consultant. Mutnick will be providing part-time assistance to HydroComp in the areas of business development and technical management of focused client projects. Mutnick brings a wide range of business and technical expertise which is a particularly good fit with HydroComp’s products and services in the arena of applied hydrodynamics. This experience includes conducting resistance and propulsion experiments at NAVSEA Carderock in their towing basins and sea trials…

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) celebrated the kick off of the Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC), launching a three-day conference at the University of Michigan, July 26-28. NEEC is a new partnership between NAVSEA and a consortium of 15 top colleges and universities as well as 2 engineering professional societies focused on developing the Navy's future science, engineering and acquisition workforce. “Sailors depend upon you to give them a ship with a technological edge. The NEEC will provide the best minds and training to give the Sailors the technological edge they rely on," said Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the keynote speaker at the Kick-Off event.

The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) announced that a program dedicated to the training of future naval systems engineers will soon be realized. A $3.2m contract awarded May 6 from the Naval Sea Systems Command, which includes five additional years of optional extensions that could add up to $49.9m, will establish a Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC) Consortium in partnership with fifteen leading US colleges and universities, SNAME and the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE). For over a century SNAME has been the international society for practitioners of the maritime arts and sciences. The Society has long supported educational opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art in naval architecture…

The U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) signed a contract agreement May 6 to establish a Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC). The purpose of the NEEC will be to educate and develop world-class naval systems engineers for the Navy's civilian acquisition, engineering and science workforce. Led by the University of Michigan, the NEEC Consortium will initially be comprised of 15 colleges and universities, along with the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) and the Society of Naval Architects and Engineering (SNAME). Other colleges and universities included in the NEEC Consortium include Virginia Polytechnic Institute…

All American Marine, Inc. and Teknicraft Design, Ltd. have successfully made a proposal to Kitsap Transit to bring a new passenger ferry to Rich Passage. On Tuesday, April 21st, the commissioners of Kitsap Transit unanimously approved $5.3m for the purchase of a 77 ft ultra-low wake Teknicraft catamaran and on May 18th, All American Marine received the signed notice-to-proceed. The high speed passenger catamaran will carry 118 passengers and operate between Bremerton and Seattle, Washington at speeds of 29 to 38 knots.

President Bush nominated Adm. Michael Mullen to serve as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Marine Corps Gen. James E. “Hoss” Cartwright as his Vice Chairman on June 28. Mullen currently serves as Chief of Naval Operations, and Cartwright serves as Commander, U.S. Strategic Command. If confirmed by the Senate, they will succeed Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani, vice chairman. Bush noted that Mullen’s and Cartwright’s nominations come at a critical time for the United States. “America is at war, and we are at war with brutal enemies who have attacked our nation and who would pursue nuclear weapons and would use their control of oil as economic blackmail and intend to launch new attacks on our country…