Marine Equipment, Inc News

Under New Ownership, Freeman Marine becomes part of the Advanced Marine Technologies Group. Freeman Marine Equipment Inc., a globally recognized brand and major US supplier to the worldwide marine industry, is now part of Advanced Marine Technologies (AMT). The company was purchased by AdvanTec Global Innovations of British Columbia, Canada. AdvanTec owns the four companies that make up the AMT Group. The other members of the group are Diamond Sea Glaze, Steelhead Marine and Manly Marine. Freeman Marine is the latest acquisition AdvanTec has made in its marine manufacturing division.

Coastal Marine Equipment, Inc. of Stennis Space Center, Miss. USA has been selected by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Freeland, WA, to supply the deck machinery for the Navy's new experimental X-Craft under construction there. The weight sensitive equipment, which was designed specifically for the X-Craft, includes two electrically driven anchor winches sized to hold 1,080ft of 1-5/8in diameter wire rope. The winches are in accordance with ABS rules for HSNC (2003) and develop 28,500lbs bare drum line pull and 212,000lbs brake holding. Also included in the package are four vertical, through deck, electrically driven capstans developing 11,000lbs line pull.

Techcrane Global Corporation is a Covington, La.-based marine crane manufacturer/distributor who recently installed Techcrane Model F250-100 onboard Torch Offshore L.L.C.'s Midnight Wrangler. This was a crane custom-designed for Torch with a maximum capacity of 125 tons at 30-ft. reach. Time lapse between design conceptions to fabrication in Covington, La., was less than six months. The bid was awarded to Techcrane in December of 2002 for delivery in mid 2003 and is a part of the project to convert the Midnight Wrangler into a deepwater pipelaying vessel. In order to accommodate these deepwater arenas, a winch was specially designed by Lantec on behalf of Techcrane for the F250 to handle 8,000 ft. of two-in. wire rope.

Coastal Marine Equipment Inc. has been awarded a contract to provide the deck machinery for the Penn Maritime ATB (tug & barge) being constructed at Bay Shipbuilding (Manitowoc Marine Group) in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. Equipment for the 140,000 barrel barge includes the 2-3/16 in. stud link anchor windlass with soft rope mooring drum; three double drum wire rope mooring winches; and three 24 in. mooring capstans. All equipment is electrically driven and provided with variable frequency drives for multiple speed operation. The tug will be fitted with a 36" hydraulic capstan and 60 HP electro-hydraulic power unit.