Keeper News

Earlier this week, Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro along with U.S. Representatives Rob Menendez and Mikie Sherrill visited to Bayonne Dry Dock & Repair Corp. (BDD).As the U.S. places renewed emphasis on navy shipbuilding and ship repair, the SECNAV has made it a point to visit to naval bases, shipyards, depots, training ranges, tarmacs, and runways worldwide to witnessed firsthand the progress being made toward improving training, readiness, and modernization of the fleet and force.BDD has provided repair services to vessels ranging from small tugboats to U.S.

UK-based offshore vessel owner North Star this week held a naming ceremony for the Grampian Tyne service operation vessel (SOV) which will be deployed at work at the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK.The vessel was named at a ceremony at Equinor’s Port of Tyne base in the North East of England (UK), ahead of its early handover to the Dogger Bank Wind Farm.The traditional good luck celebration, involving the customary champagne bottle being smashed against the hull of the ship…

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has tapped Exail to replace obsolete gyrocompass systems on the 175-foot WLM Keeper Class Buoy Tenders. The $2,244,009 contract awarded to Exail includes Octans gyrocompasses and Netans Navigation Data Distribution Systems (NDDS) and covers a base year and nine options over a 10-year performance period.This upgrade will provide the USCG Keeper Class Buoy Tenders with more precise and dependable navigation capabilities. Built on Exail’s Fiber-Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology…

Maritime technology company Orca AI announced it has secured deals with U.S. Ro-Ro operators Liberty Maritime Corporation and American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) to deploy its automated situational awareness platform across their respective fleets. Liberty was one of the early collaborators with Orca AI, deploying the first Orca AI unit on a US flag Ro-Ro vessel (Liberty Pride) in 2019.The platform, which is installed on Liberty’s ro-ro vessels and on ARC’s entire fleet, acts as a fully automatic watch-keeper, powered by computer vision and deep learning algorithms that detect, track and classify navigation-applicable targets that may pose a risk to the vessel.It is operational 24/7, prioritizes risk and presents it in a user-friendly interface.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter William Chadwick (WPC-1150) was commissioned Thursday at Coast Guard Base Boston, as the first of six Fast Response Cutters to be stationed in the city.Admiral Steven Poulin, Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard, and Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander, 1st Coast Guard District, oversaw the ceremony, as Lt. Cmdr. Tyler Kelley assumed command of the 154-foot cutter and its crew. Under Kelly’s command, the 24-person crew will now conduct missions offshore of the Northeast United States.Built by Bollinger Shipyards…

North Star’s new UK-built hybrid-powered daughter craft, specifically designed for the offshore wind market, has been launched at a naming ceremony held at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht club in Lowestoft, adjacent to the firm’s regional operations hub. The vessel was christened ‘Grace Darling’ in honor of a famous lighthouse keeper’s daughter from the North East of England who risked her life in 1838 to save the stranded survivors of a wrecked merchant ship traveling from Hull to Dundee.

Louisiana shipbuilding group Bollinger Shipyards has been humming along building Fast Response Cutters for the U.S. Coat Guard, and this week marked a milestone with its 50th FRC delivery, the USCGC William Chadwick, officially handed over on Thursday in Key West, Fla.“It’s incredibly meaningful that we could deliver the 50th FRC, the USCGC William Chadwick, on the Coast Guard’s 232nd birthday and that she’ll be homeported in Sector Boston, the Birthplace of the Coast Guard,” said Bollinger president and CEO. Ben Bordelon.

The Baltic Exchange has appointed former RightShip Chief Executive Martin Crawford-Brunt as a Strategic Carbon Lead. The Baltic Exchange recently introduced carbon assessments alongside its spot dry bulk charter rate assessments and is expanding its role to support market mechanisms aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from the shipping sector.Baltic Exchange Chief Executive Mark Jackson said, “The Baltic Exchange is laying the foundations for consistency in the way in which carbon is priced into seaborne freight.

Bollinger Shipyards delivered the USCGC Frederick Hatch, the 166th vessel the Louisiana shipbuilder has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 43rd Fast Response Cutter (FRC) delivered under the current program.The USCGC Frederick Hatch is the final of three FRCs to be home-ported in Apra Harbor, Guam, increasing the presence for the U.S. Coast Guard in the Indo-Pacific Theater. Additionally, in 2020, Bollinger delivered two of six FRCs that will be home-ported in Manama…

The crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin has finished replacing the summer buoys with seasonal winter buoys on the Chesapeake Bay, Md., Friday.Throughout the month of December the crew replaced 66 summer buoys and removed the Francis Scott Key buoy in preparation for the winter season. The seasonal buoys are kept in until late February or early March.Ice and snow have the potential to damage, displace and submerge the large summer buoys, which would leave the channel unmarked and could create a substantial hazard to mariners.

Pure Safety Group (PSG), a company dedicated solely to fall protection, has introduced the Checkmate TR3 Tripod, used as Personal Protective Equipment to access workers and provide fall protection in confined space environments.The tripod features an innovative new crown and foot design that makes it stronger yet more lightweight than other tripods. The design is representative of the new advancements in height safety that are being created by the innovation team at Checkmate.The TR3 is one of 20 new fall protection products PSG is launching in 2019 into the construction…

Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the USCGC JOSEPH DOYLE, the 33rd Fast Response Cutter (FRC) to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard took delivery on the 21st of March, 2019 in Key West, Florida. The 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter has a flank speed over 28 knots, state of the art command, control, communications and computer technology, and a stern launch system for the vessel’s 26-foot cutter boat. The FRC has been described as an operational “game changer,” by senior Coast Guard officials.

Sluis Haven Informatie Punt (SHIP), the information center is located on the lock complex right next to the construction site of the new sea lock in the North Sea Canal Area of IJmuiden, Netherlands, has introduced innovations over the past few months.Shipping company Jumelet has been granted a permit to use the mooring jetty near SHIP and will soon start a regular service from IJmuiden to SHIP and vice versa.Furthermore, Technolab, especially intended for young learners in primary education, has been expanded with new technology workshops. For art lovers, there is a new exhibition showing pen drawings and paintings by Thijs Zwart.Shipping company Jumelet has received a permit from Rijkswaterstaat to use the mooring jetty at SHIP. The permit has been issued for a period of five years.

Today many of us take aids to navigation for granted, and until they need to be replaced, we don’t realize how much we depend on them. Most marine navigation aids only require a routine inspection and maintenance after installation. Then they effectively continue their job so that mariners, harbor masters and other seafarers have one less thing to manage. However, it wasn’t always that way. The first marine aids to navigation were very different. Early mariners were guided into port by fires lit on hillsides to denote where the safe passage lay.

BMT Group subsidiary BMT Asset Performance has appointed Paul Haycock as Business Development Lead for Surface Systems. Haycock joins BMT after 35 years in the Royal Navy, serving on a variety of ships and in a diverse range of environments. A Warfare Officer and Lynx Helicopter Observer, Haycock’s sea time has ranged from Minesweepers on Fishery Protection duties to Frigates and Destroyers as a Bridge Watch Keeper, Ships Communications Officer, Flight Commander and Second in Command.

Renovation work on Anholt Lighthouse has begun and is expected to be finalised in late October. Brickwork, windows and doors are to be renovated. Once the renovation is complete, the classified lighthouse on the island of Anholt will be shining brightly. The front of the lighthouse is to be both replastered and painted and, in addition, both the windows and doors of the old lighthouse are to be renovated. Anholt Lighthouse is one of Denmark's oldest lighthouses. It was established back in 1561 according to a royal resolution from 1560 when it was decided to construct four strategic lighthouses in Denmark and, thus, it represents an important part of the Danish cultural heritage. The first brick-built lighthouse on the island of Anholt was established in the years 1785- 1788.

From the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center to New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York’s time-honored traditions are some of the most well-known around the world. Arriving today as part of another New York tradition, a “parade of ships” from several branches of the U.S. military (and one ship from Canada) sailed into the New York Harbor and up the Hudson River from Battery Park to just south of the George Washington Bridge, for the 29th annual Fleet Week New York (FWNY). Now in its 29th year…

Bollinger Shipyards said it has delivered the USCGC Benjamin Dailey, the 23rd Fast Response Cutter (FRC) to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard took delivery of the 154-foot patrol craft on April 20, 2017 in Key West, Fla. The vessel’s commissioning is scheduled for July 4, 2017 in Pascagoula, Miss. The 23rd vessel in the Coast Guard's Sentinel-class FRC program, USCGC Benjamin Dailey will be the first FRC to be stationed in the 8th Coast Guard District in Pascagoula, Miss. Previous cutters have been stationed in Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Cape May, N.J. and Ketchikan, Alaska.

Adm. Charles Michel, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, presided over a ceremony commissioning the 20th Fast Response Cutter, Lawrence Lawson, in Cape May Saturday. The Lawrence Lawson and crew are homeported in Cape May, where they will perform multiple Coast Guard missions along the Mid-Atlantic coast such as law enforcement, search and rescue and protecting America’s infrastructure from New Jersey to North Carolina. The cutter is named after Lawrence O. Lawson, who, as keeper of the Evanston…

At the opening session of the 2016 SNAME Maritime Convention in Bellevue, Washington, George A. (Sandy) Thomson was elected a Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). This is quite an honor for Thomson who has a long family history in the maritime industry. Thomson’s great, great grandfather was a deep sea captain sailing the Great Lakes before becoming a lighthouse keeper; his uncle was head of Shell Canada when Shell maintained a fleet of steam powered tankers operating on the Great Lakes…

ClassNK has established ClassNK Archive Center (NKAC), the maritime industry’s first onshore digital archive center that fully complies with IMO Goal-based ship construction standards (GBS) and the Industry Standard, which begin to apply from today. IMO GBS are broad, over-arching safety and environmental standards that ships are required to meet during their operational lifetime. The new SOLAS regulation II-1/3-10 made GBS applicable to bulk carriers and oil tankers of 150m in length and above for which the building contract is placed on or after 1 July 2016. The new regulation requires that a Ship Construction File (SCF) be provided upon delivery of a new ship and kept on board the ship and/or ashore.

ALP Striker, named at a ceremony held named on May 13, 2016, is the first of four ultra-long distance towing and anchor handling vessels for ALP Maritime Services, each with a bollard pull of approximately 300 metric tons. The vessels of the SX157 design are a part of the ALP Future class. Service speed is 13 knots, while their top speed is 19 knots. With a fuel capacity of more than 3,500 cubic meters, they can tow at full power for 45 days, sufficient for nonstop Trans-Atlantic/Indian, Pacific Ocean towing operations without fuel calls.

Vesper Marine announced today that its XB-8000 Class B AIS has a software update available for all new and existing owners, incorporating new features and capabilities to enhance marine safety. The XB-8000 is an upgradeable AIS platform, designed to be compatible with a continuous stream of feature updates, adding a host of new and unique capabilities. The most recent update makes it the first AIS transponder to allow users to connect an external buzzer to enable an audible alarm for AIS Man Overboard (MOB)…