Velvet Maritime News

“One of the really gratifying aspects of ship repair and conversion is the satisfaction we get by being able to give new service life to vessels. And that’s exactly what we did with the 40 year-old Guardian, said Allen Stein, operations manager of Bollinger Quick Repair, in Harvey, Louisiana. The 150- by 35- by 20-ft. Guardian, originally named Gale B. was built by Southern Shipyard in Slidell, La., in 1963. It was owned by Midland Enterprises (Ohio River Company) and was part of a tug/barge unit with the hopper barge Martha B.

Bollinger recently gave new life to an old boat, the 150-ft. Guardian, originally named Gale B., which was built by Southern Shipyard in 1963. It was owned by Midland Enterprises and was part of a tug/barge unit with the hopper barge Martha B. Midland sold the barge to Moran about three years ago and the tug was on the market when it was acquired by Velvet Maritime, LLC. "It was in good shape with a good purchase price," said Andre Ledoux, president of Velvet Maritime. "It had marketable power that we wanted to upgrade to meet new regulatory requirements, practically new Lufkin gears, a good Detroit Diesel auxiliary engine package, good Markey deck equipment…