St Rose News

The new facility has dedicated transmission and thruster repair facilities, and larger warehouse and training areas. ZF Marine has a long standing presence in Louisiana, opening their first location in the city of St. Rose in 1996. The ever increasing customer base combined with the addition of the commercial thruster product line in 2009 resulted in the need to create a larger physical presence in the region. A comprehensive search of the region resulted in ZF finding a new home at 677 Time Saver Avenue in Elmwood, Louisiana. ZF Marine’s new facility is three times the size of its previous location. The new facility not only houses dedicated transmission and thruster repair facilities, but also a significantly larger warehouse area.

The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) has approved use of Incumbent Worker Training Program (IWTP) grants to cover the cost of Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority, Inc. (OSVDPA) Phase 4 Assessments. “It’s great to see the Louisiana Workforce Commission recognize the OSVDPA’s assessments as an important part of the professional development of mariners,” said OSVDPA Executive Director, Aaron Smith. In addition to two classroom courses and two periods of on board experience gathering…

ZF Marine, the marine business unit of the global ZF Group, said it has secured a new location for its Gulf of Mexico/Inland Waterway sales and service operations. The company opened its wholly owned location in the greater New Orleans area in late 1996, the first satellite location outside of ZF’s North American marine headquarters. The location was established to provide close support for the commercial vessel industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Twenty years later, ZF Marine’s growing presence in the Inland Waterway…

W&O announced that it has acquired Engine Monitor Inc. (EMI) . Based in St. Rose, La., EMI provides engineering and manufacturing as a marine integrator of critical vessel monitoring and control systems. In addition, EMI offers after-the-sale support via a highly skilled field service team, expert in-house repair capabilities and a diverse engineering team. “W&O and EMI have collaborated on a number of successful projects over the years'” said Michael Hume, President/CEO of W&O. By combining resources, W&O and EMI will accelerate the growth and market share of both companies.

Kongsberg Maritime has purchased approximately 5.2 acres for new construction on an 82,980 sq ft office and training facility. Construction on the James Business Park property located on James Drive East in St. Rose, Louisiana is scheduled to begin this spring. Kongsberg Maritime moved its service department from Houston to Louisiana in 2003 establishing a small office in James Business Park with nine full-time employees. Growing together with local customers, the Louisiana office now has 110 employees occupying 35,000 sq ft of leased office space.

SCHOTTEL Inc. USA inaugurates new service location in Houma, La.; new SCHOTTEL subsidiary sales office in Australia. With an inauguration ceremony SCHOTTEL opened new facilities in Houma, Louisiana in October 2013. As an answer to the growing request for new SCHOTTEL propulsion systems and the steadily growing population of drives on the market the German manufacturer moved from St. Rose, La. to new facilities in Houma, La. The new spacious premises offer a large administration area and state of the art service halls equipped with heavy lift cranes especially suitable for large units.

MTU Detroit Diesel Inc. announced a name change to Tognum America Inc., effective June 1, 2011. Tognum America, like MTU Detroit Diesel before, is a subsidiary of the Germany-based Tognum Group and is responsible for the sales and service of MTU engines and MTU Onsite Energy distributed energy systems in North and Latin America. Tognum America has offices in Detroit, Houston, Washington DC, San Leandro, CA; St. Rose, LA; Miami, FL and Mankato, MN. The company also operates two state-of-the-art production facilities: one in Mankato, MN for diesel and gas-based generator sets and one in Aiken, SC where it currently machines parts and builds MTU Series 2000 and 4000 engines.

Roland “Bubba” Benoit – Account Manager, Commercial Craft. Roland’s years of experience as a technician with ZF Marine at our St. Rose, La. facility will serve him well as he works with fleet operators to expand ZF’s presence into the Texas Gulf and Inland River territories. Roland’s appointment reinforces ZF’s commitment to the workboat propulsion market in this region. Jay Denckla – Account Manager, West Coast. Jay, a long time Mathers and ZF Marine Electronics employee moves over to ZF Marine LLC. Jay’s intimate knowledge of electronic controls and thruster systems is going to be a great asset in working with Pleasure Craft customers on complete propulsion system solutions from ZF Marine. Josh Foster – Technical Representative.

MTU Detroit Diesel will feature three of its most popular marine engines – the Series 4000, Series 2000 and Series 60 – at the International WorkBoat Show, booth #621, in New Orleans, December 1–3, 2010. As part of the WorkBoat Professional Series, a representative from MTU will be participating in a panel discussion about predictive and preventive maintenance. MTU will also be highlighting its control systems, genuine parts and service products at the show. The MTU family of engines for commercial marine applications includes the Series 4000, the Series 2000 and the Series 60 engines.

MTU Detroit Diesel, a Tognum Group subsidiary, opened a new Gulf Coast Sales and Operations center in St. Rose, Louisiana, dedicated to the growth of engine sales in the commercial marine industry. The center also houses parts and serves as a logistics hub for MTU’s marine defense customers. The nearly 8,000-square-foot facility is located in the St. James Industrial Park just west of New Orleans. "MTU is one of the world’s major providers of diesel engines and propulsion systems for ships…

Schottel Inc. the US American subsidiary of the German manufacturer of propulsion systems, Schottel GmbH, signed a service cooperation agreement with CS Controls INC (CSC) in September 2010 at the occasion of the SMM trade show in Hamburg, Germany. With this agreement, CSC is assigned to undertake repairs, upgrades and overhauls of Schottel thrusters in North America. Schottel Inc, based in St. Rose, Louisiana and CSC, headquartered in Houma, La. with an office in Orange, Calif., are located in close proximity. This ensures optimum training in Schottel propulsion systems and highest Schottel standards with the exclusive use of original Schottel spare parts. After in depths training, CSC engineers and technicians will be included in the Schottel Inc.

Bisso Marine, a provider of energy and maritime support services, successfully launched three vessels in two recent projects. Using the D/B Cappy Bisso, a Bisso Marine crew of six launched the M/V Yellowfin and the M/V Bluefin in Lockport, La. The two ocean-going tugs each weighs 520 tons. The operation was particularly challenging because the 700-ton Cappy Bisso had to be towed through Bayou Lafourche, which can be as shallow as 6 feet in some areas. In the second launch project, Bisso Marine used the D/B Lili Bisso to launch the new push boat Coon Wise in St. Rose, La.

Over the last years Schottel has enjoyed a strong growth in North America as well as in Latin and Central America. The “Schottel Fleet“ is growing rapidly and new facilities are needed. Schottel Inc.’s main office in Louisiana has recently moved from Harahan to James Business Park in St. Rose where larger facilities can store more spare parts and overhauls being performed more efficiently. The new address: Schottel Inc., 190 James Drive East, Suite 100, St. Rose LA. 70087. USA. Phone: 504-471-3439, Fax: 504-471-3443. Furthermore, Schottel Inc.

Bollinger Shipyards returns 95 percent of its 14 locations back to work following Hurricane Gustav's plowing through the heart of the based shipyard community. According to Bollinger’s website, all but two locations are back up and running, with several locations on generators with supervisory staff only. The corporate office, located in , is on generators and is coordinating the efforts of the 3000 member workforce. Bollinger is working with the local and state authorities to insure the safe return of their employees and shipyard services to the Oil and Gas community, said Robert Socha, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing. We are communicating with our employees over the web, via local radio, telephone and community interaction.

Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Lockport, La., has re-delivered the 254-ft. supply boat, Elsa Leigh, to Aries Marine Corp., Lafayette, La. While it looks like a new vessel, Elsa Leigh is the new name for the former Seacor Clipper after an extensive renovation at Bollinger’s Morgan City shipyard. The new name is in honor of Elsa Leigh, the four year-old daughter of Courtney B. Ramsay, vice-president of Aries Marine. “This is the kind of project we love,” said Donald “Boysie” Bollinger, chairman and CEO of Bollinger.

Bollinger Shipyards last month re-delivered the 254-ft. supply boat, Elsa Leigh, to Aries Marine Corp., of Lafayette, La., which is the new name for the former Seacor Clipper following extensive renovation at Bollinger's Morgan City shipyard. The new name is in honor of Elsa Leigh, the four year-old daughter of Courtney B. Ramsay, vice-president of Aries Marine. "This is the kind of project we love," said Donald "Boysie" Bollinger, chairman and CEO of Bollinger. Much of the work involved mechanical systems in the hull and replacement of about 30 percent of the boat's steel. The vessel was brought up to ABS DPS 1, FiFi1 and GMDSS Area 3 certification. Her two main EMD engines were removed and rebuilt by NREC in Houma, La., who boosted their power from 1,250 hp each to 1,500 hp each.

Lift boats are the unglamorous vessels of oil and gas well servicing industry. They travel to the job site with three large cylindrical legs rising 150-250 ft. above the waterline. Once onsite, lift boats lower their legs to the seabed and raise their hull up to 100 ft. above the waterline to be even with the structure they are servicing to provide a stable platform for workers to transit from the lift boat to the project in which they are working. These versatile vessels can serve through the entire life of a oil or gas well from driving casing to provide a "path" for a jackup rig to drill through construction of the platform, repair and renovation of the platform to plug and abandonment of the well.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) has become a common system on most supply boats serving the Gulf of Mexico. One company that makes extensive use of CCTV on its vessels is Hornbeck Offshore Services, Mandeville, La. This is a serious commitment as the company is in the process of adding a complete CCTV system to six 220-ft. supply vessels recently purchased from the Candy Fleet, Morgan City, La. "We use CCTV to accomplish several things," said George McCoy, vessel group manager with Hornbeck. "They are used to document loads, to monitor high risk operations, monitor restricted areas, promote safe work practices and to record any unusual incidents that occur aboard or around our vessels," McCoy added. The CCTV system used on board large vessels such as the 240-ft.

Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Lockport, La. recently delivered the first of two advanced technology supply boats to L&M BoTruc Rental, Inc., Golden Meadow, La. These vessels, at 191 ft. long will not be anywhere near the largest supply vessels delivered recently, but for their size they have enhanced deck cargo and liquid cargo carrying capabilities such as twice as much fuel oil as the 180-ft. vessels they are aiming to replace. Like Bollinger's slightly larger 207-ft. series of supply boats, these vessels feature advanced monitoring and control systems along with DP capability. In addition, these two vessels integrate engine control, steering and DP-1 into a single system that allows the various components to "talk" to each other in a seamless fashion.

Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Lockport, La., will relocate its research and development engineering office from Slidell, La., and shift the Bollinger high-speed vessels group from Lockport, to the James Business Park in St. Rose, La., in October 2004. Mike Ellis, Bollinger executive vice-president and chief operating officer said, "This new location in St. Rose will not only help us better serve our current shipyards from a design and engineering standpoint, but it will also help us attract potential employees to fill our future growth plans. The Slidell research and development office, Bollinger Northshore Engineering, about 45 miles east of the new facility, opened about five years ago. It creates and develops innovative design solutions for commercial and government clients.

Shipboard monitoring, sensing and control systems are in a transitional phase in 2002. Many of the newest vessels being launched today are using traditional monitoring systems with large alarm panels using banks of warning lights hard wired to 64 or more critical points on the vessel. These systems give warning if the system being monitoring falls or rises outside of the set point. "The problem is this method of monitoring doesn't give us the parameters the operator needs to diagnose the problem," said Jack Rowley, general manager of Engine Monitor, Inc., (EMI) St. Rose, La., a leading manufacturer of electronic ship monitoring equipment.

ZF Marine announced that Stephen Taylor has been appointed Account Manager for the Gulf Coast and Inland River region. Taylor comes to ZF Marine with 20 years of Marine Propulsion experience working on commercial and government projects, in project management, and sales and marketing. Taylor will be based out of ZF Marine LLC's St Rose, Louisiana facility.

Houston, Texas-Larry T. Rigdon, President and CEO of Rigdon Marine Corporation, announced the appointment of Nathan T. Guice as Vice President for Crew Boat Operations and Business Development. Nathan was previously employed by Tidewater, Inc. for the last nine years in both domestic and international management positions, including Division Manager for all Gulf of Mexico crew boat operations. He also served two tours overseas in the Middle East and India markets. Guice earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Finance from Millsaps College, and a Masters of Business Administration from Tulane University. He will be base in the company’s St. Rose office.