Keefe, Joseph
Editor-
17 Apr 2019
BOATBUILDING: What’s in Your Workboat?
Moose Boats rises to the challenge of building its biggest vessel ever. That’s an important step forward for this growing California shipyard. Equally impressive is what’s inside that rapidly developing hull and why those features were chosen.The U.S. boatbuilding scene is a changing landscape of waterfront manufacturing that constantly evolves to meet the inevitable peaks and valleys of demand. Nowhere is that reality more apparent than at California-based Moose Boats.
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05 Apr 2019
Shipyard Coatings: Green is the Best Color
VT Halter’s new state-of-the-art blast and pain facility, already paying dividends for the shipyard’s bottom line and the environment alike, is poised to lift your bottom line with improved coatings and reduced corrosion.When it comes to marine coatings, preparation is everything. If that’s the case, then Gulf Coast-based VT Halter has all the boxes checked when it come to making sure that every vessel…
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28 Mar 2019
The Enduring, Iconic U.S. Flag ATB Model
The view from the Bouchard Boardroom and … beyond.The roots of the now familiar and reliable articulated tug and barge (ATB) business are deep and stretch all the way back to the 1800’s. Along the way, various patents to connect a tug and a barge with a secure mechanical connection were filed. The concept began to gather momentum in the late 1960’s when Edwin Fletcher with ARTUBAR, and the Bludworth…
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14 Mar 2019
DAPI 101: Outreach and Enforcement
Even as the minimum Random Drug Testing Rate is raised to 50 PCT, the Coast Guard wants its mission to consist of 90% outreach and just 10% enforcement. Really.The domestic waterfront got some less-than-happy news when the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the calendar year 2019 minimum random drug testing rate had been set at 50 percent of covered crewmembers. It’s safe to say that nobody is happy about it…
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20 Feb 2019
Round the Clock Business Demands Seamless Comms
Network Innovations and its inland waterways connectivity solution eliminates “dead spot” coverage woes. And, not a moment too soon.The bane of inland operators – or at least one of many – has always been the dearth of reliable and economical vessel-to-shore communications. Even in America’s heartland where cellular coverage is routinely billed as seamless, so-called ‘dead spots’ persist. Sometimes…
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28 Jan 2019
Inland Docking Infrastructure 101
When it comes to docking and protecting your most valuable assets, there is no room for compromise.In relation to the sea, there is no room for compromise. That’s the philosophy that SF Marina Systems has brought to the design and manufacturing of concrete floating structures, stretching over 100 years of design history, research and development. These “Storm Proven” systems have evolved over time…
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21 Jan 2019
Safety Management Systems: A Good fit for Passenger Vessels?
The evidence and industry subject matter experts both say ‘yes.’In its recently released SAFER SEAS DIGEST, Lessons Learned from Marine Accident Investigations (2017), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports investigating numerous accidents across all modes of transportation where a properly implemented safety management system (SMS) could have prevented injuries, loss of life, or material damage.
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11 Dec 2018
Outfitting the Modern Workboat
MetalCraft Marine’s 10 Meter Interceptor model is a formidable workboat. Defined by the sum of its myriad parts, it really can be seen that ‘the equipment makes the boat.’ This month, we ask "What's in Your workboat?"In a business where there is rarely any shortage of pretty boats, cutting edge designs and equally impressively performing workboat tonnage, it is also true that the real value to any design is cemented by the very equipment that makes it run.
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10 Dec 2018
GREAT WORKBOATS: The Very Best 10 of 2018
MarineNews showcases the ten best of North America’s 2018 workboat deliveries. Domestic shipyard production is robust, innovative and getting greener. And, that translates into two kinds of ‘green.’As the domestic offshore energy support sector slowly awakens, other sectors have been happy to take the spotlight in its absence. As always, and if a hull was delivered in 2018, we took a look at it, with several areas as a focus for inclusion into this edition.
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06 Dec 2018
The Top 10 Maritime Stories for 2018
Choosing the ‘top stories of 2018’ was, this year, a difficult task. Many compelling story threads played out, dramatically impacting the North American waterfront, and in particular, the workboat sector – each in their own unique way. Read on to find out how and why.Autonomous Vessels: Ready or Not, Here They ComeFuturistic, remote-controlled autonomous marine vehicles aren’t coming. They are here.
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05 Dec 2018
Data Management for Comprehensive Fuel Management & Compliance
FUELTRAX optimizes uptime and reduce costs with a real-time marine fuel management solution. Solving your emissions and fuel monitoring reporting and compliance headache is what they are all about.In today’s operating environment, it would be an understatement to say that detailed insight into fuel consumption and efficiency is one key to managing marine operations. But, beyond the operational headache of determining where and why you are consuming so much fuel and so quickly…
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04 Dec 2018
Arlen "Benny" Cenac Jr.: Navigating a Different Course Line, Making a Difference
Cenac Marine Services and its dynamic, third generation leader, Arlen “Benny” Cenac Jr., continue to flourish, in good times and bad. Through it all, leadership, philanthropy and investments that extend far beyond the company’s gates have made all the difference.As this year quickly churns to its inevitable close, Cenac Marine Services isn’t the nation’s biggest towboat operation, but its profound impact on the people and environment of the U.S. Gulf Coast and beyond is unquestionable.
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03 Dec 2018
Moose to the Rescue
This West Coast boat builder stays busy creating high quality fireboats for a diverse set of demanding, multi-missioned first responders. For Moose customer satisfaction is the name of the game. This year, they’ve got that box checked.Vallejo,CA-based Moose Boats builds aluminum catamaran and monohull vessels designed to meet a variety of mission-specific applications for military, law enforcement, emergency response, firefighting and security patrol purposes.
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20 Nov 2018
Designing for the Winds of Change
The advent of U.S. offshore wind also brings the need for the quality and quantity of built-for-purpose vessels needed to sustain its momentum.As the long-awaited advent of offshore wind finally arrives on this side of the big pond, one question which continues to dominate the conversation is where (and when) the fit-for-purpose tonnage necessary for this great leap forward will come from. Just as important…
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18 Nov 2018
Work‘bots’: Autonomous Vessels Arrive
The near-shore and inland workboat fleet is at the leading edge for autonomous vessel developmentWhile the advent of autonomous workboats are not exactly mainstream, you better believe that in the not-too-distant future they will be a reality on waterways in and around the U.S. Today there remain more questions than answers, particularly on the legal, logistics and insurance side of the coin. But the technology is evolving at record pace, providing many in the industry with mixed emotions.
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11 Oct 2018
ABB’s Next Generation DP System
Your marine pilot of the future, here today.At this year’s SMM trade event in Hamburg, Germany, industrial digital technology specialist ABB introduced what could be the future of dynamic positioning, not just for traditional DP users, but also for the full spectrum of navigation tasks. ABB Ability Marine Pilot Control is a next-generation dynamic positioning (DP) system that simplifies ship maneuvering with an intuitive touch screen-based user interface and enables safer…
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08 Oct 2018
BY THE NUMBERS: U.S. Coast Guard - AWO Annual Safety Report
Issued at the National Quality Steering Committee (NQSC) meeting on July 31, 2018, the American Waterway Operators (AWO) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) issued their annual report that benchmarks and further serves as the annual safety report card for the domestic towing industry. This year, it comes at a particularly timely moment, just on the heels of the deadline for the so-called ‘subchapter M’…
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28 Sep 2018
Dynamically Positioned for the Future
OSVDPA accredits Texas A&M Maritime Academy to provide dynamic positioning (DP) training to its cadets.In early September, the Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority (OSVDPA) announced that the Texas A&M Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University at Galveston was now the first maritime academy in the nation accredited to provide OSVDPA courses to its cadets. For any U.S. maritime academy…
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25 Jul 2018
INSIGHTS: William D. Friedman
Port of Cleveland President & CEO and newly elected Board Chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities William Friedman weighs in this month on the Port of Cleveland and its role in the all important Great Lakes trades.When the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) announced the election of Port of Cleveland President and CEO, William D. Friedman, to serve as chairman for the 2018-19 year…
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24 Jul 2018
The ABB Electric Tow Boat Beckons to Inland Operators
Long a staple for offshore service providers, a more compact and carefully designed version of the diesel electric option is now available for inland pushboats. For budget conscious operators (and who isn’t, in this environment?), the stars may finally be aligned.For many years, electric propulsion has proven to be a viable propulsion solution for many different types of vessels. Most familiar to workboat…
