Rigdon Marine News

U.S. offshore support vessel company Tidewater has announced the promotion of two key members of the company’s executive team, Sam R. Rubio and David E. Darling, to the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.Rubio has been promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, following his accomplishments serving as the Company’s Chief Accounting Officer and Controller since joining Tidewater following the combination with GulfMark Offshore, Inc. in 2018. Prior to joining Tidewater he served as GulfMark’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, after holding the position of Chief Accounting Officer for over 10 years.

Tidewater, which owns and operates the largest fleet of offshore support vessels in the industry, announced that Larry T. Rigdon has been elected Chairman of the Board effective October 28th.Rigdon replaces Dr. Thomas R. Bates, Jr., who has recently resigned from the board, said a press note.Rigdon has been a member of the Tidewater Board of Directors since August 2017. He has extensive prior experience as an executive at Tidewater. Rigdon served as Interim Chief Executive Officer of Tidewater for the five-month period ended March 2018 and had previously joined the Company in 1992 upon the merger with Zapata Gulf Marine Corporation.After successive roles of increasing responsibility, he left the company as Executive Vice President in 2002.

Tidewater has strengthened its management team with the appointments of David Darling as VP and Chief Human Resources Officer and Mark Parker as Vice President, Corporate Taxation. Darling joins Tidewater with over 24 years of domestic and international human resources experience, most recently as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Gulfmark Offshore, Inc., where he was the Human Resource Director since 2007. Prior to Gulfmark, he served in executive human resources roles with Rigdon Marine and a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Darling has additional offshore vessel industry experience as a Vessel Master and Operations Manager.

Larry T. Rigdon will serve as interim president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tidewater Inc. while a search committee seeks a permanent successor to Jeffrey M. Platt, who has elected to retire from his role as director, president and CEO of offshore service vessels (OSV) owner and operator effective October 15, 2017. “Having successfully completed the financial restructuring of Tidewater at the end of July, which positioned the company to weather current industry conditions and achieve success in the future…

It could be argued that no other sector of the maritime market has experienced a design innovation revolution quite like the Offshore Service Vessel (OSV) market. Driven by demands to supply people, gear and goods to offshore installations that are increasingly further from shore in deeper waters, today’s OSV is a far cry from those built only a decade ago. Maritime Reporter examines some of the recent innovations in design and function. Deepwater operations are increasingly demanding more personnel offshore, often for longer periods of time, placing a greater emphasis on crew accommodation.

Long reserved for specialized applications such as icebreakers, diesel electric has enjoyed a rapid growth for marine propulsion in the past decade. Throughout that period, Cummins Marine has been a leader, supplying more than 900 diesel electric packages since delivering its first genset 2003. Early adopters of this flexible propulsion technology included the US firm Rigdon Marine with twenty vessels and France-based Bourbon Offshore with over 100 vessels. In late 2011 Aries Marine built two STX-designed Tiger Shark Class PSVs.

The motto at Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. (GPA) for over thirty years and continuing to this day has always been: Engineering Ideas into Reality. For clients worldwide, no matter how large or small the project, from single vessels to an unprecedented number of vessels in one series, the adage rings true. Behind the company’s success and commitment to each and every client is a team of over 70 professionals on four continents, led by the company’s Chairman Guido Perla and supported by his management team.

Terresolve Technologies, Ltd. announced that Larry Rigdon, founder and former CEO of the Rigdon Marine Corporation, has joined the company’s board of directors. Rigdon, a former executive vice president of Tidewater, Inc., also sits on the board of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Larry’s very broad business experience will be a real asset to Terresolve,” said Mark Miller, the company’s CEO. “He has done some amazing things including raising significant venture capital and growing and running a business worth several hundred million dollars. His experience in the marine industry, which is one of our target markets, will prove invaluable. Rigdon founded the Houston-based Rigdon Marine Corporation in 2002 and served as its CEO and Chairman until retiring from the company in 2008.

Mentor, OH, March 31, 2011 – Terresolve Technologies, Ltd. today announced that Larry Rigdon, founder and former CEO of the Rigdon Marine Corporation, has joined the company’s board of directors. Rigdon, a former executive vice president of Tidewater, Inc., also sits on the board of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Larry’s very broad business experience will be a real asset to Terresolve,” said Mark Miller, the company’s CEO. “He has done some amazing things including raising significant venture capital and growing and running a business worth several hundred million dollars.

Bourbon has announced its 2009 annual results. “The strength of our strategy is to invest in order to reduce clients’ costs,” stated Jacques de Chateauvieux, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bourbon, “and putting into service new-generation innovative and high performance vessels, constructed in series at extremely competitive costs, sustains the growth in the Offshore Division operating income and provides a positive outlook for 2009. Revenue growth was essentially attributable to the strong increase in the Offshore Division revenues, which rose by 38.7%, and a resilient performance by the Bulk Division, which reported stable revenue growth of +2.9% at a constant exchange rate (12% year-on-year fall in the average annual BSI index).

Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. (GPA), headquartered in , has established a European subsidiary – Guido Perla Europe GmbH (GPE GmbH) – in . GPE GmbH will initially handle the sales, marketing and PR function, as well as existing customer support. ”The strategic decision to further expand GPA into Europe supports our vision of being a truly global player,” said Inga Scholz, General Manager of GPE GmbH. Since its foundation in 1979, GPA has provided a full range of services to include Conceptual and Preliminary Design…

GulfMark Offshore’s previously announced agreement to purchase Rigdon Marine entails that the combined company will operate 90 vessels, with 16 more under construction for delivery through 2010. Houston-based GulfMark has minimal operations, making the retention of Rigdon Marine's GoM presence significant, Energy Current reported. Rigdon Marine employs over 300 personnel, and employment is expected to grow to over 400. Rigdon Marine expects to keep its operations based in . Source: Energy Current

Under the merger proposal between Rigdon Marine Corporation and Gulfmark Offshore announced on May 28, Bourbon will sell its interest in the Rigdon companies. This sale will be effective on completion of the merger which is due to take place in the 3rd quarter of 2008. For BOURBON it will generate: capital gain on sale of approximately 60 million euros, repayment by Rigdon of loans granted by BOURBON, for a total of 110 million euros, which, in addition to the cash proceeds from the sale, will reduce the group’s debt. Since January 2006, Bourbon had contributed to the implementation of Rigdon’s financial structure. As this company has been so far accounted for according to the equity method, the sale will have no impact on revenues nor on Bourbon’s EBITDA.

GulfMark Offshore, Inc. announced it had entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), a major operator of technologically advanced offshore supply vessels. The purchase will add the RMC management team, an experienced group of mariners and a fleet of modern vessels designed to support the expanding demand in the deepwater . The combined company will initially operate 90 vessels with an additional 16 vessels under construction for delivery through 2010.

Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), announced the christening and delivery of the Hat Trick in  Christina Teague, wife of John Teague, RMC’s Vice President of QHSE christened the seventh of ten Rigdon 4000 Class vessel with the traditional champagne against the bow. Upon delivery, the Hat Trick was deployed on a term contract to an oil major in the U.S. GOM. The Hat Trick is a 190 x 46  x 18-ft., diesel electric, DP-2 PSV, which features a capacity of 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an oval, self cleaning, segregated tank system. The PSV will also include three (3) x Z-Drives and two large forward tunnel thrusters. The Rigdon 4000 Class PSVs are capable of serving a wide array of marine applications in all water depths.

Billy Guice, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), announced the christening and delivery of the Hammerhead, the first of four proprietary FSV (fast supply vessels) the company is building. Mrs. Shelley Puckett, wife of Mike Puckett, a Vessel Manager for RMC, christened the 181-ft. FSV prior to its deployment in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Hammerhead is a 181x 34-ft., 7,200-hp, DP-1 FSV, which features a capacity of 1,001 barrels of liquid mud, 664 barrels of rig water, and a cargo deck capacity of 400 metric tons. The state of the art FSV will include a 250 hp drop-down azimuthing bow thruster, and a cargo discharge capacity of 500 gallons per minute (GPM) of liquid mud, 300 GPM of rig water, and 300 GPM of fuel oil.

Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC) recently christened and delivered the Slam Dunk in Lockport, Louisiana. Karla Abshire, wife of Rodney Abshire, RMC’s Marine Superintendent christened the fifth of ten Rigdon 4000 Class vessel with the traditional champagne against the bow. The Slam Dunk was immediately deployed in support of shelf operations in the GOM. The Slam Dunk is a 190 x 46 x 18ft., diesel electric, DP-2 PSV, which features a capacity of 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an oval, self cleaning, segregated tank system. The PSV will also include three x Z-Drives and two large forward tunnel thrusters. The Rigdon 4000 Class PSVs are capable of serving a wide array of marine applications in all water depths.

Guido Perla & Associates said that the fifth in the GPA 654 PSV 10 series owned by Rigdon Marine was christened at Bollinger Shipyard in Lockport, Louisiana on January 3, 2008. With this multi-vessel order, which was placed in January 2006, Rigdon’s GPA-designed fleet has increased to 20 PSVs, including the Slam Dunk’s sister vessels First and Ten, Double Eagle, Triple Play and Grand Slam, which have been delivered or christened earlier this year, as well as ten 64-meter GPA 640 PSVs.

The 54-foot beam on the GPA-640 class PSV St. Louis contrasts with the narrower 46-foot beam on the GPA-654 class Triple Play in this image of the two vessels at Port Fouchon?s Seaport Terminal. On December 7, 2007, the fourth in a 10 boat series of GPA-654 class diesel-electric platform supply vessels for Rigdon Marine, the Slam Dunk, was delivered alongside Bollinger’s facility in Port Fourchon. At the same time the fifth and sixth of the series were taking shape at Bollinger’s Lockport, La., facility on Bayou Lafourche.

Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., delivered the Grand Slam, owned by Rigdon Marine. Grand Slam is the fourth of the 10-series GPA 654 Platform Support Vessels. The design of the DP2- and FFV1-certified GPA 654s, measuring 58 m in overall length, incorporates greater operating efficiency compared to similar sized vessels, increased cargo capacities resulting from locating propulsion generators to above main deck, as well as reduced construction cost due to simplified construction methods. Destined to serve deepwater offshore operations, the GPA 654 PSVs are capable of carrying 144 cu.

Island Boats is located on a 6.5-acre site with 30,000 square feet of covered and enclosed shops as well as a 10,000 square foot paint shop along Bayou Teche in New Iberia, La.. With a strong reputation for catamarans and a wide variety of unique aluminum boats delivered from their yard, Island Boats is now building four crewboats. “These are our fist crewboats,” said company president Miles Thomas, “But we have built many different types of vessels from which we can draw design ideas. The boats, a pair each, for two customers, include two 175 x 32 ft.

Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), announced that Grand Slam, the fourth in the series of ten 4000 Class PSV was delivered by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana. Mrs. Karen Whitley, wife of RMC’s Director of Technical Services, Jim Whitley, christened the hull of the vessel with the traditional bottle of champagne the day before the Rigdon 4000 Class PSVs was named a ‘Significant Boat of 2007’ at the WorkBoat Trade Show in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ‘Grand Slam,’ is a 190 x 46 x 18-ft., diesel electric, DP-2 PSV, which features a capacity of 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an oval, self cleaning, segregated tank system. The PSV will also include three x Z-Drives and two x large forward tunnel thrusters.

Coffin World Water Systems has contracted to supply Heli-Sep Oily Water Separators for Rigdon Marine’s fleet of offshore supply vessels (OSVs). The first ten vessels are currently under construction at Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Company in Mobile, Ala., with deliveries scheduled to begin March 2004. HELI-SEP oily water separators reduce oil discharge to less than 15ppm. The separators are equipped with a self-cleaning polishing pack and permanent coalescing matrix that eliminates the need to replace filters. Each unit is shipped pre-pied and pre-wired to simplify installation.