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Kaplan News

06 Sep 2023

US Offshore Wind Projects Seek Looser Subsidy Rules in Fight for Survival

©Cavan/AdobeStock

A fleet of U.S. offshore wind projects central to President Joe Biden's climate change agenda may not move forward unless his administration eases requirements for subsidies in the year-old Inflation Reduction Act, according to project developers.Norway's Equinor, France's Engie, Portugal's EDP Renewables, and trade groups representing other developers pursuing U.S. offshore wind projects told Reuters they are pressing officials to rewrite the requirements, and warning of lost jobs and investments otherwise."The components needed for our projects to progress simply do not exist in the U.S.

09 Aug 2023

The "KISS Principle" & Managing, Measuring Ship Emissions

Copyright Vitaly/AdobeStock

HydroComp is a well-established, small engineering firm focused on hydrodynamic and propulsion system simulation, providing design tools for engineers and naval architects to focus on vessel performance, including emissions. Don MacPherson, HydroComp’s long-tenured Technical Director, discusses the impacts of tightening emissions regulations, with insights on maximizing new vessel designs and refits.Don, maritime has been in the crosshairs of regulators to reduce emissions. What do you see as the top new regulatory issues that are impacting ship and boat design…

08 Mar 2023

Hornblower Hires DiFulgo as Chief People Officer

Karen DiFulgo (Photo: Hornblower Group)

Hornblower Group announced Karen DiFulgo has joined the company as Chief People Officer, responsible for leading the strategic and operational human resources initiatives across the company’s global portfolio. She will report to Adam Peakes, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Hornblower Group.DiFulgo comes to Hornblower from Benchmark Global Hospitality, where she served as the Chief People Officer. Prior to Benchmark, DiFulgo held senior roles in a variety…

05 Dec 2022

Foss Charters Vessel from Tug Construction

Earl W Redd (Photo: Tug Construction, LLC)

Foss Maritime has reached a deal to bareboat charter the tug Earl W Redd from Tug Construction, LLC for use in the U.S. offshore wind industry.The Earl W Redd will sail from Portland, Ore. to Massachusetts later this month to begin work on Foss 's offshore wind projects, including Vineyard Wind, the first large-scale offshore wind installation in the U.S. "The Earl W Redd is a great addition to the Foss fleet and will allow our skilled mariners to safely accomplish complex projects," said Joel Whitman, President of Business Development Foss Offshore Wind.

28 Jun 2022

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge Adds Harbor Tug in Alaska

Dr Hank Kaplan (Photo: Cook Inlet Tug & Barge)

Alaska-based marine services frim Cook Inlet Tug & Barge said it has added another harbor tug to its fleet. The Dr Hank Kaplan is now homeported in Anchorage, where it entered service earlier this month.Built in 2017 by Diversified Marine Incorporated of Portland, Ore., the vessel is a RAmparts-2400 series tugboat designed by Robert Allan Ltd. The 5,350-hp tug is the first RAmparts-2400 built in North America with Caterpillar integrated propulsion systems featuring CAT engines and z-drives.

06 May 2022

Ocean Craft Marine Finds Great Lakes Region Ambassadors for Its Boats

Credit: Ocean Craft Marine

Ocean Craft Marine, the manufacturer of Amphibious Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), has signed a brand ambassador partnership with local Chicago-area boat enthusiasts Ted Widen and Mark Kaplan. Widen and Kaplan will represent Ocean Craft Marine in the Great Lakes region to increase brand awareness and provide sales and marketing of the AMP RHIBs to prospective customers in the Midwest."With a passion for the boating lifestyle, both Ted and Mark are the perfect ambassadors for the Ocean Craft Marine brand and our Amphibious RHIBs…

10 Dec 2021

Fishing Boat Design: New Crab Boat from Gaspé Yard

Image courtesy NAVANEX /Cummins

With the regulated catch quotas of contemporary fisheries, design versatility for a fishing boat can be important. A new 19.8 x 7.3-m (65 x 24-ft.) combination crab trap and groundfish trawler designed by NAVANEX for building by Chantier Naval Forillon, both of Gaspé, Quebec, Canada is a fine example of this. Owners, Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government, anticipate accepting delivery in April of 2022.The steel-hulled vessel will have a raised fo’c’sle design with an aluminum pilot house. When crab fishing, the clear, aft deck will be capable of carrying up to 150 collapsible, 100-pound crab pots.

06 Aug 2021

Thruster Tech: Capturing Performance Data for Design of Unmanned Vehicles

Image courtesy Hydrocomp

Conducting a sea trial is a necessary step upon delivery of a ship. This activity not only documents and validates anticipated ship speed and power, but if done correctly also provides performance data that can be useful for design purposes. The same holds true for underwater vehicles in general and thrusters in particular. However, while gathering data may seem easy, extracting useful trial data for typical UVs can often be pretty challenging.We should start with an understanding of the system – the Vehicle-Propulsor-Drive system.

11 Sep 2020

Sanmar Delivers Tug to Somaliland Port Authority

M JEEX (Photo: Sanmar)

P&O Maritime Logistics (P&OML), the marine services arm of global port operator DP World, has taken delivery of a Sanmar Shipyards-built tug for the DP World managed Berbera Port on behalf of Somaliland Port Authority (SPA). The M JEEX (ex. Dogancay XXV) arrived Berbera Port under P&OML management and crew on September 10, 2020. The delivery follows a previous purchase from Sanmar, the EGAL (ex. Dogancay XXVI), delivered in the summer of 2018.Powered by a pair of Caterpillar 3212B diesel engines (two 1…

05 Sep 2019

Polymer Pioneer Wins Sperry Award

Thomson onboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Hudson with SeaThigor mechanical face seal installed.

 (Photo: Thordon Bearings)

Thordon Bearings’ founder and polymer materials pioneer George A. (Sandy) Thomson has been awarded the global transportation sector’s most distinguished accolade, the Elmer A. Sperry Award 2019 for “Advancing the Art of Transportation”.Thomson joins a long list of Sperry Award recipients, which was established in 1955, including Donald Douglas, Ferdinand Porsche, Sir Geoffrey De Havilland, Christopher Cockerell, Leonard Hobbs, Perry Pratt, Josef Becker and Malcom McLean.“I am deeply honored and humbled to win this award…

15 Nov 2018

Digital Feature Extraction with PropCad Premium 2018

A new utility automates feature extraction from 3D CAD data.Marine propellers can last a long time – it is not uncommon to find a vessel running on its original set of propellers. Sometimes, these propellers even outlive the companies that produced them. For example, some large volume propeller manufacturers have permanently closed their doors and patterns, molds, and design data have been scattered to unknown corners of the globe. It’s fair to say that while the propeller manufacturing industry has seen growth…

09 Apr 2018

Mulherin Receives the Nimitz Award

Matt Mulherin (center) accepts the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Award from Alan Kaplan (left), national president of the Navy League of the United States, and Dr. J.P. “Jack” London, executive chairman and chairman of the board of CACI International Inc., on Monday afternoon in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Ashley Cowan/HII

Matt Mulherin, former executive vice president of Huntington Ingalls Industries and president of Newport News Shipbuilding, was recognized by the United States Navy League today as a 2018 recipient of its annual Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Award. This award honors an industry leader who has demonstrated the leadership, statesmanship and dedication to the nation that were exhibited by the award’s namesake. Mulherin, who retired from the company in July 2017 after a distinguished 36-year career…

15 Feb 2018

Triple-screw Tug for the Hudson

(Photo: Cummins/Alan Haig-Brown)

“The Daisy Mae is the closest you can get to Z-drive maneuverability, without the cost of Z-drive,” maintains her builder Joseph Rodriguez of Rodriguez Ship Building Inc. in Bayou LaBatre, Ala. Rodriguez has designed and built a lot of tugs over the years and doesn’t make this claim lightly. Further more he backs it up with his description of the beamy 82 by 32-foot tug that his yard delivered to Coeymans Marine Towing. This is one of the Carver group companies based at the Port of Coeymans 110 miles up the Columbia River from New York.

02 Nov 2017

Robert Allan Ltd. Designs for the American Market

(Photo: Robert Allan Ltd.)

Being based just across the open border between Canada and America since 1930, Robert Allan Ltd. has developed a deep understanding of the American market and just how our ship designs can be tailored to suit our neighbors’ requirements. America is unique in many ways. The current designs of American towing vessels are largely the result of domestically focused requirements not encountered elsewhere. As a result, Robert Allan Ltd. has had to learn to treat America as unique and not to assume means and methods used elsewhere will suit the U.S. market. A simple example is the use of the U.S.

20 Jul 2017

New Tug Joins Harley Marine Fleet

(Photo: Caterpillar Marine)

Harley Marine Services has welcomed its newest vessel, Dr Hank Kaplan, to its Puget Sound fleet on June 22. The vessel has a length of 80', a beam of 36' and a depth of 13'7" and is equipped with two 3516C marine propulsion engines that deliver a combined 5,350 HP. The vessel also features the brand new Cat MTA 524-T azimuth thrusters, which were specially designed for high performance tractor tugboats. Designed by Robert Allen Limited in Vancouver, the tug was built at Diversified Marine in Portland, Ore. and is a sister class vessel to the recently built Michelle Sloan and Lela Franco.

13 Mar 2017

Combination Tug & Dive Support for Peruvian Navy

Photo: Cummins

The Peruvian Navy has recently taken delivery of a well-equipped dive support vessel (DSV) from the shipyard Servicios Industriales de la Marina S.A. (SIMA). Designed in-house by the shipyard, the new 4400 HP vessel has significant towing capabilities and can act as a salvage tug. The 32 by 12-meter vessel has a molded depth of 4.5 meters on a finely-shaped, double chined hull. A four point anchoring system as well as a launch and recovery system for deploying an open diving bell are among the effective salvage and dive-support deck equipmet.

20 Oct 2016

Overcoming the Propeller Supply Bottleneck

Image: Hydrocomp

Hydrocomp’s ProCad facilitates in-house Process Control of Propeller Design and Manufacture. Maritime Tactical Systems Inc. (MARTAC) is a Florida-based company building next-generation unmanned vessels for military applications. In preparation for the “Rim of the Pacific” (RIMPAC) military exercises in Pearl Harbor this last July, MARTAC needed a new propeller design for their MANTAS series high-speed vessels. Unfortunately, their current supplier was not meeting delivery schedules for the high-quality surface-piercing propellers that they need…

30 Sep 2016

Why Should I Care About Thermal Insulation?

Photo: Thermal Structures, Inc.

There are a million important things to worry about on any vessel, so why does high-performance thermal insulation deserve a place on the list? Answer: Because it has a very important role to play in keeping your vessel out on the water, being operated safely by a crew and safely carrying passengers. What is High-performance Thermal Insulation? When we talk about high-performance thermal insulation, we’re talking about insulation that can stop a significant amount of heat, in a relatively small space.

04 May 2016

Harley Marine Orders Two Harbor Tugs

Harley Marine Services announced the construction of two new ship handling vessels to be built at Diversified Marine in Portland, Ore. The two tugs are sister class vessels to the previously built Michelle Sloan and Lela Franco, and will add to the company's fleet presence on the West Coast. The vessels will each have a length of 80', a beam of 36' and a depth of 16'-8" and are capable of producing 70 short tons of bollard pull. Each vessel is equipped with two CAT 3516, Tier 3 propulsion engines, for a total of approximately 5,200 horsepower, and two Caterpillar C7.1, Tier 3 generators. These engines reduce NOx and particulate matter, from Tier 2 models by 74 percent. The vessels are each equipped with a Markey bow winch, a barge handling stern winch, and Shibata fendering.

02 Feb 2016

Creating Patterns with PropCad Premium

Pattern Corrections is used to expand and thicken propeller designs to create machining models and casting patterns. Individual control is provided for separate blade parameters. (Image: HydroComp)

HydroComp announced its PropCad software for the geometric modeling of marine propellers has receieved an upgrade. Now, PropCad Premium introduces another powerful feature, the Pattern Corrections tool. HydroComp’s Pattern Corrections tool reduces manipulation of the propeller design within a 3D CAD tool. Pattern Corrections allows users to directly specify machine stock and shrinkage to create machining models, casting patterns and mold geometries. An advantage is that these corrections are applied directly to the propeller parameters…

15 Mar 2015

Modi Makes Waves in Indian Ocean

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived back home after five days tour of three Indian Ocean countries. His tour has served to reclaim some of New Delhi’s lost footing in the area. New Delhi accepts that India can less afford its past passivity regarding its maritime backyard. Tangible evidence is Narendra Modi's three-nation Indian Ocean tour. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Indian Ocean sojourn -which took him to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, last week, infused fresh energy into India's mantle as the fulcrum of stability in the Indian Ocean. It signaled India's intent and capacity to ward off extra-regional challengers and emerge as a 'net security provider' in strategically crucial sea lanes for global commerce and geopolitics.

13 Mar 2015

First RAscal 1800 ASD Tug for Sanmar

Photo: Robert Allan Ltd.

The Yenicay 1 is the first of the new RAscal 1800 series of ASD tug designed by Robert Allan Ltd. and delivered by Sanmar to its own fleet in Turkey in January, 2015. The RAscal 1800 is a big sister to the RAscal 1500 delivered by Sanmar in 2014 to Norwegian clients and shares a common hull form style, wheelhouse and general layout. According to the designer, both are built to high standards, almost yacht finish, and are fitted with Caterpillar engines and Veth Z-drives. However, the RAscal 1800 has considerably more power, speed and bollard pull.

19 Feb 2015

Propellers: One Size and Shape Does Not Fit All

A screenshot of the latest version of PropCad

Hydrocomp’s newest release of PropCad incorporates 3 years of enhancements. Propellers are surprisingly complex devices, especially considering most are a solid piece of metal with no moving parts. The variation in vessels and operational requirements leads to wildly different designs, from noise-sensitive propellers for luxury cruiseliners to wide-blade sets for tugs. With different combinations of diameters, pitches, blade styles, and blade counts, there is no limit to the design alternatives available.