Wo News

The new passenger fast ferry, Xin Ming Xhu VIII, is now servicing commuters on Hong Kong’s waterways after digital shipbuilder Incat Crowther delivered the first of six new passenger fast ferries to mass transit operator Sun Ferry.Xin Ming Xhu VIII, built by Guangzhou-based shipbuilder AFAI Southern Shipyard, is now in operation on the busy Central Ferry Pier to Mui Wo and Cheung Chau commuter routes in Hong Kong.Capable of transporting up to 500 passengers, the new low-draft vessel features Incat Crowther's latest generation hull form.

A modest event designed as a get-together for commercial workboat operators in upstate New York is now celebrating 20 years as a three-day community festival.On September 11, 1999, local resident John Callaghan had an idea to bring in some friends who ran tugs on the Hudson River and NYS Canal System for a quick one-day get together, right at the entrance to the famed Erie Canal. Callaghan, then a tug captain himself for the state canal system, brought in seven tugs and cooked several dozen hot dogs.

wo new tankers, Nordic Star and Nordic Space, were named August 24 for owner Nordic American Tankers Limited (NAT). NAT founder and chairman Herbjørn Hansson was present at the naming ceremony, along with the chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Norwegian Embassy Marianne Damhaug, and the ships' two sponsors, Nordic American Offshore Ltd. executive vice chair Marianne Lie and Siv Helset, a Norwegian lawyer with experience with legal counseling in the industry. Ordered by NAT in December 2014, the two ships were built by South Korean shipbuilder Sungdong.

Rimorchiatori Riuniti bolsters Porto di Genova fleet with another Robert Allan Ltd. Rimorchiatori Riuniti currently operates five Robert Allan Ltd. designed tugs in its Porto di Genova fleet, including two AVT 2700 harbor escort tugs (Svezia and Inghilterra), one AVT 3600 offshore towing and escort tug (Messico) and two RAmparts 2,400W ASD harbor tugs (Norvegia and Spagna). The company has recently bolstered its Genova fleet with a new RAmparts 2400SX, 70 metric tons bollard pull tug, built by Sanmar Shipyard in Turkey.

Captain Robert M. Cusick Jr., a merchant marine officer who survived the wreck of the SS Marine Electric and then helped lead a major reform of US maritime safety standards, died peacefully in his sleep in New Hampshire on Thursday, September 12, 2013, according to Carol Cusick, his daughter. He was 90 years old. Against the advice of many friends and colleagues, Captain Cusick testified at a US Marine Board of Investigation and detailed how inspectors and company officials overlooked numerous holes in the hatches…

Japan is waging a public relations war as it struggles to control the nuclear contamination threat at home while playing down the concerns of consumers abroad. Fears of tainted goods from the battered nation are affecting trade flows, with regional weather distributing radiation particles and hysteria across Asia. In South Korea, panic over radioactive rain in March saw schools shut down en masse, despite the minute level of radiation posing no known health risks. In Hong Kong in April…

Hornblower Cruises & Events has appointed Bob Shaw, a senior executive with more than three decades of operations experience, to the position of chief operating officer. In his new role, Shaw will be responsible for day-to-day management of all Hornblower companies, including charter yacht and public dining operations and two National Park Service concession contracts. "Bob’s management and passenger vessel industry experience along with his accomplishments as an executive for several multi-million dollar companies give him invaluable perspective.

It's been a year since MarineNews linked the dual tugmeets of the first week of September, one in New York City, the other upstate, at Waterford. Coupled, they make an interesting study, for their differences as much as their similarities. The tugs of New York City come in all sizes, but are typically large. Just as New York is a city of (many) skyscrapers, so it's a city of (many) monster tugboats, as harbor craft go. Waterford, a few miles north of Albany, is the gateway to the Erie Canal - is actually on the canal. While New York State's canals have renewed potential for commercial service, they're known most widely as recreational attractions for people who drive (many) large and pricey boats.

By Hector V. In recent years, the emphasis in Maintenance Management has grown for various reasons, all very much related to the financial benefits that the owner of vessels and/or offshore installations will capture by paying much closer attention to Preventive maintenance than was normally contemplated in previous decades. The offshore oil field industry and ship owners/operators need to pay close attention to the development of international conventions containing regulations and classification society requirements regarding maintenance. Classification societies requirements to periodical surveys make possible to establish a survey arrangement for retention of class based on Planned Maintenance System (PMS) on board.

It's been a rough year for tugmeets. Charleston, Boston, and Portland, whose Musters we've covered in the past, were respectively, skipped, canceled, and postponed. The World Ship Society tells us they'll be back next year with the Boston event, and the Portland muster, pre-empted by Hurricane Charlie, is taking place as this is written. We wish we could have gone north. While there are all sorts of good reasons to attend a tugmatch, we, being media people, think mostly about the good press they bring the business. The way things are shaping-up in such realms as national security, the price of fuel, environmental cleanliness and such, waterborne transport displays more and more advantage for the good of all.

Fugro Structural Monitoring, a division of Fugro Global Environmental & Ocean Sciences Ltd., has been awarded a contract from FMC Technologies to provide a riser management system for the completion/workover riser for Statoil’s Tyrihans Field in the Norwegian North Sea. Working in partnership with MCS, Fugro Structural Monitoring will supply its riser management system, IRIS-RMS, for the project’s C/WO rig. Tyrihans is one of the biggest development projects on the Norwegian continental shelf in coming years, and due to come on stream in 2009. Using the MCS Flexcom software, the Tyrihans IRIS-RMS will interface with the vessel’s existing system providing data integration; proven predictive analysis, display, and archiving of riser related data.

There's N.Y., and there's N.Y., N.Y. They are as unalike as two places can be. One is upstate, the other is downstate. One is composed of small and medium-size towns, the other ranks with the biggest cities in the world. One is a land laced with rivers and canals, the other occupies islands on one of the Atlantic's broadest harbors. Attitudes and styles are different in both places, too. Ed Koch, a television personality who once campaigned for governor, can tell you from experience that a big-city boy never mentions "gingham dresses" north of White Plains. Waterford and Manhattan are a three-hour ride apart, two if you speed, but even the language sounds different in both places. But they both have their tugboats. And everyone loves tugboats.