Vosper News

Andrew Shaw has taken up his new position as chief executive at ASRY,  ship and rig repair yard in the Arabian Gulf. Effective January 4,  Shaw will lead the firm as it enters its 40th year of operation. He re-joins the company after previously holding the position of general manager of the ASRY Offshore Services division from 2009 to 2014. Shaw has more than 25 years experience in the global maritime industry. He was most recently group managing director for 2.5 years at a U.K. ship repair and conversion company.

ASRY, the leading ship and rig repair yard in the Arabian Gulf, has announced that Andrew Shaw will be the new Chief Executive of the shipyard, effective early January 2017. He re-joins the company after previously holding the position ofGeneral Manager of the ASRY Offshore Services division from 2009 to 2014. ASRY Chairman, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Al Khalifa, confirmed the selection: “With the current challenges facing the Middle East ship repair market, we were looking for a candidate that would bring not only relevant industry experience, but also a proven track record of good leadership, as well as a dynamic hands-on approach to facing the challenges in our future. Shaw has more than 25 years experience in the global maritime industry.

Norway's Maritime Partner is set to reach a landmark in its history as it completes the construction of its 2000th vessel since founding in 1994. Maritime Partner CEO Peder Myklebust said the Aalesund based company is ‘immensely proud’ that its 2000th boat will be delivered to its long standing client and fellow Norwegian company the shipbuilder Kleven. The 2000th boat is part an order Kleven placed in December 2014 for six Seabear 23 MkIIIs and six Macgregor AC38 davits. The…

PT-728, one of the few remaining examples of the torpedo-armed fast attack craft that helped America win WWII, is no ordinary boat. To help move the vessel carefully, HOSTAR Marine used a hydraulic yard trailer. Portraying various sister boats, PT-728 has played a starring role in numerous movies and documentaries, most famously as PT-73 in the television show McHale's Navy. She is the only U.S. Coast Guard-inspected PT boat licensed to take passengers for hire. Currently undergoing restoration at the Liberty Aircraft Museum in Port Clinton…

When the long-time operators of the National Park Service passenger route from Key West, Florida, to Dry Tortugas National Park were looking to keep that contract and further upgrade the quality of their offerings in that market, they did what most satisfied customers would do: they went back to the builder of their current vessel, Massachusetts-based Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding. The original boat used by Yankee Fleet in this service, built in 1998, provided reliable service over the years, but new contract requirements and changes in certain regulatory regimes ultimately made its replacement necessary. With the new Yankee Freedom III now in service…

Having recently signed a new 10-year contract with the National Park Service (NPS) for passenger service between Key West, Fla., and the Dry Tortugas National Park, Massachusetts-based Yankee Fleet has ordered a new 250-passenger, high-speed catamaran from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, the Duclos Corporation. The new vessel will replace the ferry operator’s interim vessel, Yankee Freedom II, which the shipyard built in 1999. Delivery is planned for 2011. The new, larger vessel, designed by Incat-Crowther, closely resembles the Yankee Freedom II in order to retain the strong brand presence Yankee Fleet has established with tourists to the national park, said company officials. The all-aluminum catamaran measures 110 feet (33.5m) long, 30.6’ (9.3m) at the beam, and will draw 7 feet (2m).

USA Naiad Maritime Group, Inc. and VT Group plc (VT) announced Naiad Maritime Group’s completion of the acquisition of the collection of businesses known as the VT Motion Control Group, including Naiad Marine Systems, Maritime Dynamics, Vosper Motion Control and Vosper Stabilizers. The acquisition was led by John Venables, former Group President of the VT Motion Control businesses, with 27 years in various engineering and executive capacities at the companies. Venables will continue to lead the business as President & CEO of Naiad Maritime Group. Naiad Maritime Group, Inc. is comprised of Naiad Dynamics US, Inc., Naiad Dynamics UK, Limited, and Naiad Dynamics Holland, BV. It has operations in Connecticut, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Australia.

SpecTec has been contracted for the delivery of a comprehensive IDEA management software system to M/Y Slipstream and sister vessel M/Y Cloud Nine. Both vessels are currently under construction at CMN shipyard in Cherbourg, France and are due for delivery in February and June 2009 respectively. SpecTec has been contracted for the delivery of a comprehensive IDEA management and documentation system to the next two vessels of AMELS’ 171 semi-custom mega yacht series. Both vessels are currently under construction at the yard’s Vlissingen facility and will be delivered mid 2009.

Technical proposals for the shipment of natural gas under compression rather than in the refrigerated, liquefied state have surfaced from time to time over the years, but have received a lukewarm response from the marine industry. The considerable cost of the shipboard containment methodology has been a major stumbling block. Now, a Canadian engineering contractor has come up with an altogether more economic solution to the cargo carrying needs of compressed natural gas (CNG), and pitched at relatively short-distance sea transport applications. Instead of the prohibitively expensive pressure bottles that have earlier been central to CNG transport concepts…

Vosper Thornycroft Holdings announced that they will pay $19 million for the Atlanta-based Griffin Services Inc. In an effort to expand to the U.S., the British naval shipbuilder and defense service, Vosper Thornycroft will pay $12 million more depending on Griffin’s performance. The privately-held Griffin, with an order book totaling over $300 million, operates at military sites across the U.S.

VT Halmatic announced a new Marine Products Spares Team to co-ordinate, support and process VT Halmatic spares orders. Based at Portchester Shipyard, the new dedicated team of specialists will focus on handling customers and owners requirements in a timely and cost effective manner. The team has many years experience in handling VT Marine Products equipment world-wide and has an industry leading reputation in keeping numerous naval, and government agencies working and maintaining serviceability of equipment fitted to many high speed ferry services. VT Halmatic expects its support to be faster and more competitive and now offers the full VT Halmatic…

Fast ferry and military craft motion control specialists, Maritime Dynamics, Inc. (MDI), have added Bureau Veritas to the classification approvals for their Ride Control System with Autopilot. MDI, part of the U.K.’s vosper Thorncroft Group, already has approval form Det Norske Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping for its RCS and Autopilot. The RCS monitors vessel attitude and automatically positions effectors to reduce accelerations arising from pitch, roll and heave motions. The additional MDI integrated autopilote provides commands to the vessel’s steering system to dampen yaw motions and provide heading control. Over 100MDI RCS have been supplied to fast craft throughout the world.

Vosper Thornycroft (VT) announces that it has agreed to acquire Merlin for approximately $136 million USD ($94 million GBP). Merlin’s principal business is the facilities management of communications operations, primarily for the BBC in relation to the BBC World Service and for the Ministry of Defense (MOD). It also operates a global short wave and medium wave transmission network. Merlin will complement and extend VT’s existing skills and experience in the provision of technical services and is and important step towards VT’s target to more than double turnover from its support services business over the next 3 financial years. For the year ended March 31, 2001, Merlin reported operating profit, excluding a business to be discontinued, of $7.2 million on turnover of $74.6 million.

Hy-Line Cruises, a division of Hyannis Harbor Tours, Hyannis Mass., has ordered a new 300 passenger high-speed catamaran from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, the Duclos Corporation. This is the third Incat-designed fast ferry built by the shipyard for the caps cod tourism company, and the twenty-seventh high-speed catamaran built by Gladding Hearn. The M/V Grey Lady III, scheduled for delivery next year, will replace the smaller Grey Lady II and provide year-round passenger service between Hyannis and Nantucket Island. The new, all-aluminum ferry is 144 ft. (43.7 m), 35 ft. (10.6m) at the beam, and draws 6.5 ft. (2m). It is powered by four Cummins KTA50M2 diesel engines, each delivering 1800 bhp. The vessel is propelled by four Hamilton water jets through Reinjtes WVS730D gearboxes.

Wynn marine has won the contract to supply the window wiper systems for three offshore patrol vessels (FOPV) currently under construction at Vosper Thornycroft, UK. The contract is to supply 13 Type C Straight Line Wipers to each vessel, which will be operated by the Wynn Series 2000 Controller. The Type C offers the most advanced design of linear action window wiping systems available and is one of the most popular systems in the world for providing clear viewing areas for commercial, naval and fishing vessels. Construction of the first of the three River Class FOPV's commenced at Vosper Thornycroft's Woolston shipyard in May 2001 and the first vessel will enter service with the Royal Navy in November 2002.

It appears that the trend toward consolidation and acquisition can be profitable, at least in the case of British shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft Holdings Plc, which reported to a wire service today that it expects revenue and operating profits to rise by 15-20 percent in the current year, in large part due to acquisitions. The company reportedly expects a rise in pre-tax profit in the year to March 31. U.S.-based Griffin Services Inc. -- a military facilities manager -- was among the company's six acquisitions last year. In addition to financial news, the company said that Paul Lester, the group managing director of construction and infrastructure group Balfour Beatty Plc, would replace veteran Chief Executive Martin Jay on July 1.

U.K. boatbuilder Halmatic, part of the Vosper Thornycroft Group, has recently secured a contract to build 20 Halmatic Cougar Enforcer 33 Ultra Fast Patrol Boats for the Royal Oman Police Coastguard. The new craft are to be used for coastal patrol and interception duties along Oman’s coastline. The new patrol boats are based on the Cougar 33 raceboat deep “Vee” hull form. Powered by twin Yanmar inboard marine diesels driving Hamilton waterjets the boats will achieve service speeds in excess of 45 knots. This contract is the first major overseas success for the Halmatic Cougar Alliance, launched in 2001 to design, market and manufacture the Cougar range of ultra fast patrol boats. There are three versions of the Halmatic Cougar Enforcer craft, between 33 ft.

A new shape in navy warships is quickly taking shape in the U.K., as Vosper Thornycroft (VT) has completed structural work on the 321 ft. (98 m) Trimaran Warship demonstrator being built for the U.K.'s Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The upper bow structure, weighing approximately 25 tons, was maneuvered into position on the RV Triton, which is scheduled for launching this month. The ship will be delivered to DERA in August before starting the initial phase of a trials program that will determine whether trimaran hulls will be considered for the Royal Navy's Future Surface Combatant. BT has built the ship using mega-blocks weighing up to 200 tons each. Five mega blocks have been fabricated and extensively fitted out before consolidation.

UK shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft Holdings Plc, reporting a three percent rise in annual profits, said it would soon have an order book in excess $1.5 billion. Pre-tax profits before goodwill climbed to $53.7 million for the year to March 31, up from $52.6 million the year before, on turnover of $419.2 million. The results reflected a successful diversification strategy, Vosper said, in reference to its expansion into new markets and reduced dependence on large - but infrequent - warship contracts. Some 67 percent of its turnover is now unrelated to new ship contracts. In addition to building warships for the British Ministry of Defense, Vosper has developed a strong support services division, which now accounts for over 40 percent of group sales.

French defense group Thomson-CSF plans to bid for British warship builder Vosper Thorneycroft, which in turn is preparing a bid for U.K.-based Hunting Engineering, according to press reports. Officials of Thomson-CSF, which recently acquired defense electronics company Racal Plc, said the company could bid up to 15 pounds ($22.46) per share, valuing Vosper at $754.6 million. The takeover bid, which is reportedly welcomed by the British government, would ensure Thomson-CSF a slice of a multi-billion dollar contract to build new frigates for Britain's Royal Navy. Vosper was reportedly mulling a bid for the defense arm of British-based Hunting Engineering, a maker of weapons integration systems for Apache attack helicopters along with engineering business in the oil industry.

The UK government threw a one billion pound lifeline to Britain's shipbuilding industry, awarding contracts for three new warships to defense groups BAE Systems Plc and Vosper Thorneycroft Holdings Plc. BAE was named as prime contractor to construct two of the first batch of a dozen state-of-the-art Type 45 Anti Air Warfare Destroyers. Vosper will build the third warship at its shipyards in Portsmouth. Both companies will be involved in the design, and construction is expected to start in 2002. The Ministry of Defence is expected to order a total of 12 Type 45 destroyers, due to come into service between 2007 and 2014. The MoD said the rest of the orders should be placed in 2004.

Vosper Thorneycroft has won a $205 million British government contract to build two new specialist warships, safeguarding 800 jobs at the Appledore Shipyard. The multi-role Hydrographic and Oceanographic survey vessels are due to enter service in 2002 and 2003. The new 3,500 ton ships will be equipped with the latest survey systems, including multi-beam echo sounders and modern side sonars as well as advanced navigation and communications systems.

Halter Marine has answered the call from the Venezuelan Navy for a variety of patrol boats. The company recently delivered four 80 ft. (24.3 m) boats to the country's government, which completes the contract for the design and construction of 12 total vessels in this size range. Designed for high speed operations in coastal and riverine environments, the vessels will be used for a variety of patrolling efforts in Venezuelan territorial waters, specifically to counter illegal drug traffic, provide search and rescue assistance, and disaster relief. Powered by a pair of Detroit Diesel marine engines, the vessels will have a range of 1,000 nm and a maximum speed of 25 knots. Halter also supplied the last two 54 ft. patrol boats for the Venezuelan National Guard.