WorkBoat January 2023

Bustling

The buzz was back at the 42nd International WorkBoat Show.

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The WorkBoat Show returns

This year, it is easy to be positive in my post-International WorkBoat Show assessment.

My first thought on the first day of the show was what a relief to finally have conversations that weren’t dominated by Covid. Sure, Covid is still around, but after two-plus years of dealing with the pandemic, it was great to see show attendees so relaxed catching up with old friends and talking business again just like it was in 2019.

At a Think Tank panel session on the inland waterways, speakers voiced concerns over low water and the ongoing worker shortage.

The most heavily attended sessions revolved around offshore wind.

Stability and predictability are two hurdles that the offshore wind industry must clear to build out the new fleet it needs, panelists said at a Think Tank session at the show.

“For us, the biggest challenge is seeing these projects permitted and moved forward,” said William Hanson, senior vice president for market development with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. LLC, which is building the first U.S.-flag subsea rock installation vessel for the U.S. offshore wind market.

“The key is going to be establishing durability for this industry,” said John Begala, the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s vice president for federal and state policy. Administration planners “need to stick by their 16 COPs (construction and operations plans) by the end of their term. Then we can say this industry is on a glide path to success.”

The industry’s top vessel needs are:

wind turbine installation vessels, cable laying ships, feeder barges to carry turbine components, service operations vessels and rock-laying ships to place armoring around turbine foundations.

And the needs will be more evident by 2026, said Liz Burdock, CEO and president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind.

Looking at the pace of planned U.S. projects and the supply of vessels, 2026 could be a year of bottlenecks, she said.

As we have done since the U.S. offshore wind sector’s infancy, we will continue to provide updates on the industry in the magazine, on WorkBoat. com and at future WorkBoat shows.

ai16389015345_editwatch_BPA_2021.pdf 1 12/7/21 1:25 PM

WORKBOAT® (ISSN 0043-8014) is published monthly by Diversified Communications, 121 Free St , P O Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438 Editorial Office: P O Box 1348, Mandeville, LA 70470 Annual Subscription Rates: U.S $39; Canada $55; International $103. When available, extra copies of current issue are $4, all other issues and special issues are $5 For subscription customer service call (978) - The publisher reserves the right to sell subscriptions to those who have purchasing power in the industry this publication serves Periodicals postage paid at Port land, ME, and additional mailing offices Circulation Office: 121 Free St., P O Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438 From time to time, we make your name and address available to other companies whose products and services may interest you. If you prefer not to receive such mailings, please send a copy of your mailing label to: WorkBoat’s Mailing Preference Service, P O Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORKBOAT, P O Box 1792, Lowell, MA 01853. Copyright 20 A S U in Printed Communications Diversified by

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honoring heroes. empowering families. supporting those who protect our nation.

The Coast Guard Foundation is a vital partner to the Coast Guard—tackling the toughest challenges confronting our heroes and strengthening the entire community. Join us today. coastguardfoundation.org 860-535-0786

EDITOR IN CHIEF David Krapf / dkrapf@divcom.com

SENIOR EDITOR Ken Hocke / khocke@divcom.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Kirk Moore / kmoore@divcom.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Capt. Alan Bernstein • Bruce Buls • Michael Crowley • Jerry Fraser • Pamela Glass • Betsy Frawley Haggerty • Max Hardberger • Joel Milton • Jim Redden

ART DIRECTOR Doug Stewart / dstewart@divcom.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jeremiah Karpowicz / jkarpowicz@divcom.com

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE S

Kim Burnham 207-842-5540 / kburnham@divcom.com Mike Cohen 207-842-5438 / mcohen@divcom.com

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Krista Randall 207-842-5657 / krandall@divcom.com Danielle Walters 207-842-5634 / dwalters@divcom.com

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

Wendy Jalbert 207-842-5616 / wjalbert@divcom.com

Producers of The International WorkBoat Show and Pacific Marine Expo www.workboatshow.com • www.pacificmarineexpo.com

EXPOSITION SALES DIRECTOR Christine Salmon 207-842-5530 / c salmon@divcom.com

PRESIDENT & CEO Theodore Wirth / twirth@divcom.com GROUP VICE PRESIDENT Bob Callahan / bcallahan@divcom.com

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Jacksonville Ship Repair

Ensuring proper operation and detection of radar SARTs

The Coast Guard Of ce of Investigations and Casualty Analysis has released Safety Alert 12-22 to address issues that may reduce the effectiveness of a radar search and rescue transponder (SART) during an emergency.

During a recent marine incident, a survivor was drifting in the water and holding an activated 9 GHz (X-band radar) SART, but the individual was not detected by some of the responding vessels, including good Samaritans and Coast Guard vessels. The survivor saw four vessels pass close by as he held the SART above water and shouted for help, but none of the vessels’ crews saw him. The survivor was nally rescued after remaining in the water for three hours.

After the incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) tested the survivor’s SART, in cooperation with the Coast Guard, the vessel’s owner, and the SART manufacturer. The testing revealed that the SART was in good condition and was operating in accordance with the international and domestic requirements for a 9 GHz SART. Why didn’t the responders detect the SART? The postincident testing revealed the X-band radar settings that are optimal for navigation might prevent the SART signature from displaying on a vessel’s radar screen. The gain, sea

clutter, rain clutter, tuning, and range on X-band radars are commonly operated in “auto” mode, but this mode was found to drastically reduce or eliminate the ability of the receiving radar to display a SART’s dots or circular lines.

Additionally, the orientation of the SART antenna and the height of the SART above the water affect the ability of an X-band radar to detect a SART. SARTs are designed to free oat or be mounted on a pole in a life raft or survival craft.

The Coast Guard strongly recommends that vessel owners, operators, and crewmembers:

• Incorporate the above information into their SART training and testing in order to better prepare to use or detect a SART during an emergency.

• Ensure that all safety equipment is maintained in accordance with the SART owner’s manual. As with all safety equipment onboard a vessel, the usefulness and the effectiveness of a SART is dependent on several factors, including proper maintenance, testing, training, and operating procedures. The primary source for maintenance, testing, and operating procedures is the SART owner’s manual.

Coast Guard Of ce of Investigations and Casualty Analysis Washington, D.C.

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Joel Milton works on towing vessels. He can be reached at joelmilton@ yahoo.com.

On the Water

Educating rec operators — Part II

The education that recreational boaters can receive when communicating with merchant mariners over the VHF-FM radio sometimes goes beyond the simple need to stand a reasonably attentive radio watch, which is one element of a proper navigation watch.

The better understanding that rec boaters have of what is going on around them the more likely it is they will not inadvertently and unnecessarily put themselves in harm’s way. Doing this not only jeopardizes them but everyone else. If the opportunity is there to help recreational boaters it should be taken advantage of.

An area that still needs significant improvement encompasses vessels that have no need (because of their small size and shallow draft) of navigating in a channel but choose to do so anyway. Why does this happen so frequently? Sometimes boaters have an overblown sense of self-importance or entitlement and know just enough of the navigation rules to try to justify

Captain’s Table

The passing of two industry giants

The maritime industry is made up of many individuals whose personalities are larger than life. Two of them passed away suddenly late last year, leaving a void in our industry and our lives.

their actions. You can usually tell if that’s the case when you get them on the radio. But I believe that most boaters simply don’t recognize the dangers. They are unfamiliar with the waters they’re navigating, or their navigation and collision-avoidance skills are generally shaky, so they cling to the channel markers out of anxiety and fear. How many times have I had to exit the extensively marked channel while towing a loaded tank barge on Delaware Bay to get past a yacht or sailboat with far less draft that was in the channel? Too many. If I’ve got the room and the depth for it, then they certainly do and then some.

Of course, it’s all about your draft. And that’s something I regularly teach to trainees. Aids to navigation sometimes mark areas that we must stay within, but more often they are just a handy reference that we can pass safely to either side of to varying degrees. It’s like a sidewalk along a busy road.

That’s why having a detailed knowledge of the waterways that you regularly navigate is so important, for both professionals and amateurs.

Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats in Cincinnati, is a licensed master and a former president of the Passenger Vessel Association. He can be reached at 859-292-2449 or abernstein@ bbriverboats.com.

William “Bill” Dow, 86

I first met Bill Dow in 1980 at a meeting in New Orleans to negotiate the purchase of two sternwheel riverboats, the Becky Thatcher and Mark Twain

This meeting marked the beginning of a 50-year friendship in the passenger vessel industry. Bill and I spoke regularly over the years. He was a remarkable man who was passionate about the passenger vessel industry. He founded the Lake George Steamboat Company in Lake George, N.Y., one of the oldest, continuously operating passenger vessel companies in the nation. Not one to sit by idly when there were boats to build and passengers to carry, Bill also founded the New Orleans Steamboat Company and built the steamboat Natchez, which still plies the Mississippi River and has become an iconic symbol of New Orleans. Those

of us in the passenger vessel industry will miss Bill.

Capt. Clarke “Doc” Hawley, 87

If there ever was a person who symbolized the spirit of the Western Rivers, it was Capt. Doc Hawley. A true riverman, Doc spent his entire career on riverboats and ultimately at the helm as captain of a string of famous steamboats such as the Natchez, Avalon and Delta Queen. He was also renowned for playing the calliope. In river lore, the calliope was important because it announced the arrival of the vessel in towns up and down the inland river system.

Doc was also the consummate storyteller and over the years, he regaled customers and colleagues alike with stories about the river and its rich history. He spoke at a variety of industry meetings such as Tall Stacks in Cincinnati and at conventions held by the Passenger Vessel Association. I’ll always remember him as a natty dresser, always turned out in his “dress for success” jacket and bowtie. But what I will miss most is Doc’s warm smile and his welcoming personality.

Time marches on, but I am blessed to have known both industry giants and will be comforted by their memories.

Energy Level

Playing the name game

Some oil and gas companies want to be known as anything but.

During these convoluted times, companies engaged in hydrocarbon production are looking to distance themselves from their core product. The rebranding trend comes as public sentiment of fossil fuels dims while they demand more of same. Changing brands to something that sounds less oily is also seen as a way to attract young technical whiz kids, who may have more progressive leanings, into preparing for an industry career, as companies fret over a dearth of newly minted engineers, geophysicists and the like. The slim pickings from the university talent pipeline were highlighted in the results of a Texas Tech University survey of petroleumrelated schools that showed only 400 petroleum engineers graduating from U.S. universities in 2022 — an 83% decline from the 2017 peak.

Though it seems to be garnering more attention lately, rebranding is not new. In 2018, Norwegian behemoth Statoil changed its name to the more hipster sounding Equinor. Two years later, British Petroleum adopted the BP moniker, enabling it to conveniently proclaim itself as going “beyond petroleum.”

The two, incidentally, are now partners in a couple of major offshore wind projects in New York.

Now comes oil eld services giant Schlumberger, which less than two months ago said it would thereafter be known as SLB to signify its focus on decarbonization and the energy transition. Other than disassociating itself with the iconic oil eld brand, it seems unclear how exactly its new identity encapsulates that focal point.

And this from Paul Pastusek, a drilling mechanics advisor with ExxonMobil, no less.

“I think we need to rebrand as the energy industry. Forget about oil and

WorkBoat

WTI Crude Oil 77.17 86.54 77.10 69.88 Baker Hughes Rig Count 16 14 18 15 U.S. Oil Production (millions bpd) 12.0 11.9* 12.1* 11.1

Sources: Baker-Hughes; U.S. EIA *Estimated

gas and say energy in all forms is what makes life better,” he said at September’s International Association of

Drilling Contractors (IADC) Drilling Technology Committee (DEC) hybrid forum in Houston.

WorkBoat Composite Index

WorkBoat stocks gain 3% in November

In November, the WorkBoat Composite Stock Index gained 101 points, or 3%. For the month, gainers topped losers 13-11. Offshore service vessel operator Tidewater Inc. lost ground in November, losing about 10%.

But Quintin Kneen, Tidewater’s president, CEO and director, told analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings

call in November that the offshore vessel market continued to strengthen during the third quarter. “We saw a meaningful improvement in our pro tability and free cash- ow generation,” Kneen said. Tidewater’s average day rate increased by nearly $1,100 per day during the quarter on slightly higher active utilization of 83.7%, up about 1.2% compared to the

INDEX NET PERCENT

COMPARISONS

10/31/22 11/30/22 CHANGE CHANGE

Operators 417.95 402.72 -15.23 -3.64%

Suppliers 4,822.46 5,169.82 347.36 7.20%

Shipyards 4,837.04 4,759.35 -77.69 -1.61%

WorkBoat Composite 3,351.70 3,452.98 101.28 3.02%

PHLX Oil Service Index 82.31 84.12 1.81 2.20%

Dow Jones Industrials 32,732.90 34,589.77 1,856.87 5.67%

Standard & Poors 500 3,871.98 4,080.11 208.13 5.38%

For the complete up-to-date WorkBoat Stock Index, go to: www.workboat.com/resources/workboat-composite-index

second quarter.

Tidewater was able to share a lot of positive news. The company reported positive net income for the rst quarterly period since 2017, and revenue of $191.8 million increased 17% compared to the second quarter of 2022.

During the third quarter, Tidewater entered into 54 new contracts covering 38 vessels. For those vessels that had multiple contracts during the quarter, each follow-on contract was signed at a materially higher day rate than the rst contract, Kneen said.

“We are very pleased with the thirdquarter results,” Kneen said. “Although we do expect some typical seasonal variation in the fourth quarter and in the rst, we believe that the fundamental factors that are driving pro tability in our business, robust offshore activity and an increasingly tight vessel supply market, will continue to drive increases in pro tability throughout 2023.”

www.workboat.com

Nor’easter

Offshore wind’s inflation jitters

Withsummer’s end, the relentless boosterism behind U.S. offshore wind development received a splash of cold water to the face as developers looked at their nancial numbers.

Escalating costs for steel and other materials along with interest rates already had European wind turbine manufacturers warning that they were losing money in spring 2022. Then last summer Dominion Wind, developers of the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, warned that state of cials’ demand for a power performance guarantee could kill the largest U.S. project.

Dominion had estimated its turbines would perform on average at 42% of the maximum nameplate capacity of the wind generators. Dominion appealed the guarantee holding it to that performance and asking for more exibility. In a Sept. 29 ling with Virginia state of cials, Dominion said keeping the guarantee “will prevent the project from moving forward and the company will be forced to terminate all development and construction activities.”

A month after the $9.8 billion project seemed at dire risk, Dominion and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a settlement plan on Oct. 28.

“This hard-fought agreement includes unprecedented consumer protections for Virginians,” said Miyares. “Traditionally, Virginia consumers have paid for all of the costs of utility projects. Today’s agreement changes that in the event of cost overruns. Dominion Energy has agreed to cost sharing and a cost cap on construction expenses, after which it will be responsible for all cost overruns. The agreement also includes a performance standard designed to ensure that the project produces the energy promised.”

Instead of the hard performance minimum guarantee the commission originally called for Aug. 5, Dominion

said the settlement poses an alternative, requiring detailed reporting on turbine performance.

The pricing anxiety struck next in Massachusetts, when Avangrid sought to renegotiate its power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Commonwealth wind project with state utilities, as did May ower Wind, a venture by Shell New Energies US LLC and Ocean Winds North America.

“Global commodity price increases, in part due to ongoing war in Ukraine, sharp and sudden increases in interest rates, prolonged supply chain

constraints, and persistent in ation have signi cantly increased the expected cost of constructing the project,” according to Avangrid. “As a result, the project is no longer viable and would not be able to move forward absent amendments” to power purchase agreements, the company said.

After tense negotiations, Massachusetts state ofcials and power companies were keeping the PPAs in place, with an agreement to continue talking with developers about their supply chain problems and global industry issues.

Contributing Editor Kirk Moore was a reporter for the Asbury Park Press for over 30 years before joining WorkBoat in 2015. He has also been an editor for WorkBoat’s sister publication, National Fisherman, for over 25 years.

Inland Insider

Low water, worker shortage plague inland waterways

From low water on the rivers and difficulties hiring workers, to the costly fallout of inflation, leaders of the inland industry pulled no punches in describing the challenges that face their industry at a recent Marine Finance Forum organized by Marine Money in New Orleans on Nov. 30.

Among the highlights:

Finding workers will be a long-term problem “People will be our biggest headwind going forward,” said Lance Sannino, president, Enterprise Marine Services. The challenge will be “how do we bring new folks into the industry. We’ve relied generationally on families to push the business and that is ending.”

Training workers will be essential. “We’re not going to pay our way out of this,” said Mike Ellis, CEO of American Commercial Barge Line. “Our industry has a history of being a cycli-

Legal Talk

Maritime liens are powerful tools

Arecent case from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals highlights a few important points about maritime liens. Ship operators are familiar with the basic concept. Liens are essentially claims that arise against a vessel when someone provides it with goods or services. This dates to the age of sail.

cal business and one thing that gets cut in a down market is training, and we’ve done a disservice by not training through down times. We’ve all learned a lesson that we must continually train. If we try to pay our way out, we’ll just be taking people from other competitors and not fixing the overall issue of how to bring people into the industry.”

Eliminate pollution and mistakes: Customers are demanding that the industry do better, according to Christian O’Neil, president, Kirby Marine Transportation Group. “We have to get to zero when it comes to accidents and spills,” he said. “If you’re not dedicated to zero spills and zero injuries, zero harm to your equipment, then we’re not going to be here in 10 years. That bar just keeps getting raised.”

Inflation is killing the bottom line. Inflation has increased the costs for just about everything, and high interest rates and steel prices have discouraged investments in new assets. At Kirby, the cost of plate steel is up 208%, fuel and oil filters are up 123%, and the cost of crew changes has increased 20%, O’Neil said.

clude repairs, supplies, towage, use of drydocks, or marine railways.

Tim Akpinar is a Little Neck, N.Y.based maritime attorney and former marine engineer. He can be reached at 718-224-9824 or t.akpinar@verizon. net

In the case at hand, Epic Companies was decommissioning oil platforms on the Gulf of Mexico. As general contractor, Epic hired the heavy-lift vessel Nor Goliath to load large components of oil platforms onto barges. Tugs from various companies moved the barges ashore. An inland scrapyard dismantled the oil rigs.

Unfortunately, Epic went bankrupt. The tug companies sued, asserting liens against Nor Goliath under the Commercial Instruments and Maritime Liens Act (CIMLA). They argued that they were entitled to liens because their services amounted to “necessaries.”

Under CIMLA, someone providing necessaries to a vessel upon orders from the owner has a maritime lien on the vessel. They could bring a civil action to enforce the lien. Necessaries in-

The trial court ruled for Nor Goliath on the validity of the liens. On appeal, the higher court also ruled in Nor Goliath’s favor. The courts looked at necessaries as things that a prudent owner provides to a vessel to perform the functions for which it is engaged. In analyzing “function,” the tug companies argued that Nor Goliath’s specific function was the entirety of the decommissioning process. But the court saw Epic as the one with the specific goal of decommissioning the wells.

The tug companies also argued that their services were a necessary for Nor Goliath’s particular function. The court disagreed. It referred to a case where gasoline was not considered a necessary for a vessel just because the vessel transported the gasoline. (Martin Energy Services LLC v. M/V Bourbon Petrel ) It would be different if a vessel was using the gasoline, not just carrying it.

The third argument made by the tug companies was that the decommissioning project would have come to a halt without the tugs moving the barges. As such, Nor Goliath indirectly benefitted from the towing of the barges. Again, the court rejected this reasoning to enforce the lien.

Insurance Watch

Insuring your employees

Shipyards and other marine-related business handle a wide variety of jobs that require different forms of workers’ compensation coverage.

There are three main areas of injury coverage: Jones Act: Also called the Merchant Seaman Act of 1920 it covers employees who are considered crewmembers on a company’s vessels. Seamen employed on vessels traveling from U.S. port to U.S. port are entitled to coverage under the Jones Act, with the coverage provided under the vessel’s protection and indemnity policy. Crew are covered for injury and illness while “in service to the ship” through the maintenance and cure portion of the coverage. Crew are also entitled to sue the ship or ship owner for unseaworthy or negligent conditions which they believe caused their injury. To be considered a crewmember, an employee must spend roughly a third of their time at work in service to the ship.

USL&H: Employees who are working around

docks, wharves or servicing a vessel fall under the U.S. Longshore and Harborworkers Act. Examples are stevedores, repair crew, crane operators or similar employees who service, load, or go on and off vessels but are not considered crewmembers. The two determining factors for USL&H are situs and status, both of which need to be met to be eligible for this coverage. To meet the situs test, the injury must have occurred while working on or near navigable waters. The status test is met by the work being done. Exclusions include of ce workers, aquaculture and boatbuilders who build recreational vessels under 65’. It is inexpensive to have this coverage added to a state workers’ compensation policy on an ‘if any’ basis. This provides a company with at least some defense coverage should a USL&H claim be led against it.

State workers’ compensation: Of ce staff and other employees are covered under a company’s

Bollinger acquires VT Halter Marine for $15 million News Bitts Cell phone use behind grounding of tanker

Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La., announced in November that it has completed the $15 million acquisition of VT Halter Marine Inc. and ST Engineering Halter Marine Offshore (STEHMO). The newly acquired yards have been renamed Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding and Bollinger Mississippi Repair.

The VT Halter shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., consists of 225,000 sq. ft. of covered production area in the main fabrication assembly buildings. The facility can build Panamax-sized vessels up to 50,000 dwt. and features an expanded 740' tilt-beam launch system.

Bollinger purchased the companies from ST Engineering North America, a Virginia-based technology, defense and engineering group.

In addition to the $15 million purchase price, Busan, South Koreabased ST Engineering Ltd. may receive additional payments of up to $10.25 million, subject to the award of certain future shipbuilding contracts to Halter Marine that meet required operating pro t margins.

The sale includes 378 acres comprising two shipyards in Pascagoula and two dormant yards north of Pascagoula. The Pascagoula facilities are strategically located with direct, deepwater access to the Gulf of Mexico and include corporate of ce space, engineering, fabrication, warehousing, and a foreign trade zone.

ST Engineering conducted a thorough review of its two U.S. marine businesses. The two units have incurred a combined net loss before taxes of $256 million in the last ve years (2017-2021), with an annual net loss before taxes that ranged from about $40 million to $60 million.

VT Halter is a subsidiary of ST Engineering. Bollinger Shipyards was acquired by Edison Chouest Offshore in 2014.

“We have experienced challenges and losses in the past years operating the two U.S. shipbuilding and ship/rig repair businesses,” said Vincent Chong, group president and CEO of ST Engineering. “After a thorough review of strategic alternatives, we made this dif cult decision to exit the U.S. marine business. We believe that this proposed transaction represents a favorable outcome for ST Engineering shareholders, Halter Marine and STEHMO as well as their stakeholders.”

“We thank our U.S. marine employees for their contributions over the years, including accomplishing many shipbuilding successes and delivering niche vessels with high engineering contents to their customers,” said Ng Sing Chan, president of ST Engineering’s marine business area.

AMaryland

state pilot guiding the 1,095' containership Ever Forward was distracted by his cell phone use before the vessel ran aground March 13 in Chesapeake Bay, according to a Coast Guard report on the incident. The Hong Kongfl agged Evergreen Marine Corp. vessel was heading south from the Port of Baltimore to Norfolk, Va., with 4,964 containers on board, when it grounded outside the Craighill Channel near lighted buoy 16.

First woman appointed to lead USMMA

The

Maritime Administration announced in November the historic appointment of Rear Adm. Joanna M. Nunan (Coast Guard, Ret.) as the fi rst woman superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, N.Y. Nunan, who spent more than three decades in the Coast Guard, has commanded units at every level both afl oat and ashore.

Tanker crew rescues missing rec boaters

Apair

of Florida-bound recreational sailors last heard from on Dec. 3 were picked up by the Hong Kong tanker Silver Muna 214 miles east of Delaware on Dec. 13 after a massive search that covered 21,000 square miles, according to the Coast Guard. The search spanned from northern Florida to east of New Jersey. The sailors appeared unhurt.

Go to workboat.com/news for the latest commercial marine industry news, or download our mobile app. Search WorkBoat in your app store on your mobile device.

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Wind

Crunch Time

Progress in the U.S. offshore wind market has been sluggish recently.

For starters, onshore infrastructure is currently not capable of producing the 2,100 giant wind turbines that the Department of Energy (DOE) said will be needed to meet the federal government’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2030. While some 40 GW are in the project pipeline, including 74 turbines on tap to begin generating power this year, only seven were spinning in U.S. waters at the end of 2022, delivering a combined 42 megawatts (MW) of power.

The DOE estimates that installing those turbines, some well over 800 feet tall, in seven years will require up to six Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessels (WTIVs) annually, along with assorted support vessels that will be necessary post installation. Only one WTIV is currently under construction in the U.S.

Moving pending developments out of the pipeline and onto electrical grids will also require successfully navigating formidable supply chain bottlenecks. “There are more projects in the pipeline by developers than the supply chain can supply, the components, vessels and also manpower,” said Sy Oytan, senior vice president of offshore wind projects for Avangrid Renewables, a Portland, Ore.-based subsidiary of Avangrid, which boasts projected East Coast offshore wind capacity of 5 GW.

Along with in ation, the weak infrastructure for offshore wind adds to developmental costs as the massive turbines must be manufactured outside the U.S., transported to domestic staging facilities, and delivered to the installation site by Jones Act feeder vessels.

Compounding the supply chain and in ationary pressures is a cumbersome

A floating terminal employing WindFloat technology being deployed for installation at the Atlantic wind farm off Portugal. Plans call for the technology to be used off California.

state and federal permitting process, which can extend the time between the awarding of a federal lease to electricity owing into homes and businesses by up to 10 years, said Brita Woeck, lead environmental and permitting specialist for Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted “We’ve seen from the East Coast and elsewhere that uncertainty related to permitting or delays in permitting can have a really signi cant trickle-down effect and impact the overall project schedule,” she said during a Sept. 13 Reuters webinar on the edging California oating offshore wind market. “We need to shore up the state and federal permitting process.”

FIRST POWER IN 2013

Aside from Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, all developments and most awarded leases are concentrated off the Northeast coast. Dominion hopes to have up to 180 turbines generating 2.6 GW of power off Virginia Beach, Va., by 2026, in what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm. “We remain on schedule to begin offshore construction in the second quarter of 2024 and complete construction by the end of 2026,” a spokesman said.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) also ventured out of familiar territory in May with a lease sale for tracts off North Carolina and

South Carolina, which drew $315 million in high bids. On Dec. 6-7 European-led consortiums shelled out most of the $757.1 million in high bids for ve deepwater leases off California’s Morro Bay and Humboldt. Thus far, lease sales are expected in 2023 in the Gulf of Mexico, Oregon and the Gulf of Maine.

In the meantime, two offshore wind farms are set to deliver a cumulative 943 MW of rst power in 2023 on the upper East Coast, while a miniaturized oating wind demonstration project takes shape off Maine.

The high-pro le Vineyard Wind I off Massachusetts will become the nation’s rst utility scale offshore wind project in late 2023 when it begins generating 806 MW of rst power. Operating under the Vineyard Wind Partners consortium of 50-50 partners Avangrid Inc., Orange, Conn., and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), the farm comprises 62 GE

A two-turbine pilot project, in operation since 2020, precedes the developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm.

Haliade-X turbines, standing up to 853' (260 m) high with blades 351' (107 m) long, each generating 13 MW of power.

“The supply chain for Vineyard Wind 1 is fully contracted and all labor costs are either xed or capped, which protects the project from current market pressures,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Blázquez.

Avangrid also will operate two projects off Connecticut and Massachusetts, which together will deliver an estimated 2,036 MW of power. Target start-up dates for the 804-MW Park City wind farm off Connecticut and the 1,232MW Commonwealth project offshore Massachusetts have been pushed back to 2027 and 2028, respectively, while the developer reworks the business case for the two farms.

“As both Park City and Commonwealth Wind were bid at a time of 40 years of in ation stability, we are working hard to examine every opportunity to improve the business case for both projects,” said Avangrid’s Oytan. “We are exploring whether the project can

BUOYANCY INFLATABLES

FOCUS Offshore Wind

of 11 MW of power in the first demonstration of floating offshore wind in U.S. waters. The New England Aqua Ventus pilot project, a joint venture of Diamond Offshore Wind and RWE Renewables, is being deployed in 300' of water 14 miles off the Maine Coast.

The purpose of the demonstration project is to scale up floating technology, monitor environmental factors, and develop best practices for offshore wind to coexist with traditional marine activities. The 65' turbine is scaled to 1/8 the size of its commercial floating counterpart.

Crowley Wind Services is developing the 42-acre Salem Harbor Wind Terminal in Salem, Mass., to initially support Avangrid’s Commonwealth and Park City wind projects. The state’s second major offshore wind port terminal will provide a logistics and operations center for turbine pre-assembly, transportation, staging activities and storage of assembly components.

benefit from an additional tax credit for domestic content contained in the Inflation Reduction Act.”

New York’s first offshore wind farm, likewise, is set to begin operation late in 2023 east of Long Island’s Montauk Point. Offshore installation has begun on the 12 turbines of the South Fork Wind project, which is designed to generate 132 MW of power. South Fork Wind is 19 miles southeast of Ørstedoperated Block Island, off Rhode Island, which is now the nation’s only operational, but non-utility scale, offshore wind farm.

South Fork is operated through a joint venture of Ørsted and, for now, Eversource Energy, which plans to liquidate its 50% stakes in South Fork and two additional projects the Massachusetts utility shares with Ørsted off Connecticut and New York

Ørsted and Eversource are current co-owners of the Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind farms, which together will produce an estimated 1,628 MW of offshore wind power. The two projects are expected to be fully permitted in 2023 and in service two years later. Revolution is designed to generate 400 MW of electricity to Rhode Island and another 304 MW to Connecticut, while Sunrise Wind will provide 904

Principle Power

MW to New York. Revolution will be developed with up to 50 turbines, while Sunrise will have as many as 110 turbines.

Buoyed by the $4.4 billion in high bids received in the February 2022 New York Bight federal lease sale, Eversource plans to finalize the sale of its offshore wind interests in 2023. “We have a lot of line of sight on value, because obviously we saw what took place in the New York Bight,” said CEO Joe Nolan.

Elsewhere, a scaled-down turbine off Maine is targeting 2026 for delivery

The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center designed the concrete semisubmersible hull.

FLOATING TO 25 GW

Floating wind is gaining steam as shallower waters get more congested, prompting developers to look farther offshore in deeper waters. “In my personal opinion, floating wind is the future,” said Oytan.

The Biden administration agrees and in September launched an initiative to accelerate floating wind development, with the aim of reducing costs by 70% by 2035.

California is the epicenter, with the state having set an objective to generate 5 GW of floating offshore wind by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045 in waters more than 3,600' deep. Meeting the

The Atlantic floating wind farm in Portugal could be replicated off the California coast.

lower 5 GW goal is a daunting prospect in one of the nation’s most tightly regulated states with only three suitable ports capable of delivering the estimated 330 turbines that may be required, said Mikael Jakobsson, chairman of oating wind developer Floventis, the offshoot of the 2021 joint venture of Cierco and SBM Offshore.

“With an aggressive supply chain, you can make two a month, so you’re looking at 24 a year and California will need up to 330 turbines for 5 GW and we only have three ports,” he told the Reuters webinar.

Nevertheless, a project off Eureka, Calif., could generate up to 150 MW of oating wind power by 2026, pending the expected awarding of a lease in December’s Humboldt area federal offering.

Global oating wind developer Principle Power Inc., Emeryville, Calif., plans to employ its WindFloat technol-

ogy in the agship Redwood Coast Offshore Wind Project on behalf of the Redwood Coast Offshore Wind LLC consortium, led by Principle Power and Spain’s EDP Renewables, among the high bidders in December’s California sale. The still-unfolding project will require from ve to 15 turbines set over up to 3,600' of water.

INFRASTRUCTURE SHAPING UP

On the other side of the country, the supply chain for major components saw signi cant growth in 2021 and 2022 with 10 new major domestic manufacturing facilities announced at ports along the East Coast, the DOE said.

The announced investments include the reported $200 million Siemens Gamesa is investing to build the nation’s rst offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant at the Port of Virginia to initially support Dominion’s CVOW

farm. Plans call for the facility to build 176 of the world’s largest offshore wind turbines with blades nearly 355' long.

A U.S. supply chain that can manufacture all major components domestically could create between 12,300 and 49,000 annual, full-time-equivalent manufacturing jobs, the DOE concluded in its 2022 Offshore Wind Market Report.

Creating and lling those construction and ongoing support jobs, including mariners, however, represent a signi cant challenge nowadays with developers exploring all avenues to land quali ed help.

“One of the things we’ve had real success with on the East Coast on a very granular level is working with local colleges and trade schools to develop programs to prep workers in communities to do the jobs that support offshore wind,” said Ørsted’s Woeck

Collared

RIB manufacturers must keep up with technology.

MetalCraft Marine has a long track record of building RIBs for the Navy. But its current order from the Navy for 67 RIBs represents a rst — all of the RIBs will come with MetalCraft’s push knees built into the bow.

The rubber push knees protect the collar and when engaged with a seawall they stick to it. A RIB’s stern might be moving up and down but the bow “is stuck to that wall and not moving,” said Bob Clark, partner and contracts manager at Kingston, Ontario, and Watertown, N.Y.-based MetalCraft. “Everybody is blown away by how they work.” He compares it to how a crew transfer vessel works when up against an offshore wind tower

A couple of special features built into a pair of MetalCraft Marine Interceptor RIBs — an eight-meter (26'6"×8'5") and 10-meter (34'×9'19") — for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, are a fold-down bow and a pair of Porta Products transom brackets with 425-hp Yamaha outboards.

The fold-down bow is incorporated into the deck and when the bow is opened a ladder slides out, becoming in effect a bow ramp, allowing crewmembers to come and go during beach landings and facilitating diving. In 2022, Clark called that feature, “a revolutionary change for RIBs.”

When the outboards are mounted on the Porta Products brackets and trimmed up, they are above the bottom of the boat. “You can drive in 10 inches of water and never damage the props,” said Clark.

In addition, the brackets put the outboards 22" behind the transom “giving you more trimability.” Clark said the Porta Products brackets are “truly unique and very robust.” With the brackets, he said, the Yamahas “performed beautifully,” hitting 50 knots.

Clark said a trend in RIB design is “mounting the collar higher and higher out of the water.” When the collar is in the water, although it holds the boat up, it limits a RIBs ability to turn. Move the collar up and the RIB makes much sharper turns. Currently, MetalCraft collars are 8" to 10" above the water, which Clark said, is “the highest collar on the bigger boats.”

SILVER SHIPS

Silver Ships Inc., Theodore, Ala., builds many RIBs for the military. Several of them have been 20'×12' (6.7m×3.6m) and 20'×17' (6.7m×5.1m) Amber series RIBs for the Navy’s highspeed maneuverable surface target (HSMST) program. The HSMST RIBs are converted to remote control and employed as live- re training targets for shipboard personnel.

SIGNIFICANT BOATS

MONJED 2 NAMED BOAT OF THE YEAR

SIGNIFICANT

BOAT OF THE YEAR

One of the boats that MetalCraft Marine delivered this year is the 85'×26'×12' aluminum firefighting, rescue, patrol boat Monjed 2. The boat, which was delivered to the Kuwait Fire Force with a 4' draft, was designed by Walker Marine Design Ltd. in the UK.

Because of the uniqueness of the boat’s operational location, MetalCraft started looking at outside designs that were used in severe sea state conditions that could make good speeds and carry heavy loads.

MetalCraft decided on a Walker Marine design used on North Sea windfarm maintenance boats, most of which are also semi-displacement designs, which means very little hull motion and a comfortable ride for the service techs, according to MetalCraft partner and contracts manager Bob Clark. “Seasick service techs don’t work very well.”

Neither do re ghters.

“MetalCraft started on preliminary designs back in early 2015. Several concepts did not y due to the instability of shooting 12,000 gpm from

45 feet above the water,” said Clark. “Even a catamaran design would need to be very large and very heavy with a super-low center of gravity to support the force of 12,000 gpm from the tower monitors.

“Of course, this is only one of the stability concerns,” he continued. “The boat would also need to handle severe seas if a re occurred during a storm event. MetalCraft started looking at outside designs that were designed around severe sea states that could

make good speeds and carry heavy loads. This led us to the wind farm boats of the North Sea.”

Monjed 2’s design has very tall twin hulls wide enough to house large diesels and lots of re ghting equipment. Several dozen of this Walker model are in service. The key to a mature design, like the shipyard’s Firestorm model, is its heritage, as each subsequent build incorporates new and better developments into the design, Clark said.

Main propulsion comes from

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

is tted with a Sleipner Side-Power SH550 bow thruster and Imtra Exalto wipers.

MJP took care of the controls and steering responsibilities with its Jet Master 1 package. There is also a Raymarine Axiom, Setcom, and Teledyne FLIR electronics suite aboard the boat.

Capacities include 1,200 gals of diesel fuel, 100 gals. water, and 800 gals. re ghting foam.

The Monjed 2 features two Jason  re pumps, discharging 5,000 gpm each through telescopic monitors that extend 40' above the deck.

Ship’s service power is the responsibility of twin Kohler gensets.

Monjed 2’s design

two MTU 10V 2000 M86 diesel engines, producing 1,360 hp at 2,450 rpm each. The mains connect to twin Marine Jet Power DRB 500 waterjets

through ZF 665 two-speed marine gears. The propulsion package gives the boat a running speed of 27.8 knots. For added maneuverability, the boat

The MetalCraft FireStorms models are evolving. And that’s signi cant. The FireStorms like the Monjed 2 have improved over the boats built back in 2003. Importantly, Clark notes that all those boats are still in operation.

DOUBLE DOWN

Brix Marine, Port Angeles, Wash., delivered the 48'×18'×4'10" aluminum overnight charter fishing boat Double Down to Soldotna, Alaska-based Big Dan’s Fishing Charters in April. The boat was designed by the shipyard.

Because of the 2019 Conception tragedy in California, Brix worked closely with the Coast Guard to make sure everything was up to the agency’s new standards.

The Conception was a 75', woodand-fiberglass passenger vessel. On a Labor Day weekend dive trip, a fire broke out which engulfed the boat and led to its sinking. It resulted in the deaths of 34 people.

The Coast Guard and NTSB found that the boat’s electrical system was overwhelmed with the large number of electronic devices that passengers had

KVITBJORN

Brix Marine

plugged into the system.

The Coast Guard cited the captain for failure to have a night watch or roving patrol, to conduct sufficient fire drills, and to conduct sufficient crew training.

“Since the Conception fire, we worked really close with the Coast Guard to make sure everything was up to the new standards,” said Capt. Charlie Crane of Brix Marine.

From the tragedy came a bevy of new regulations concerning overnight charter boats. Double Down was built to those new standards.

Tour boat operates 800 miles from the North Pole.

The 48'×13.8', 12-passenger Kvitbjørn (Polar Bear) was launched on May 2.

A Swedish collaboration between Volvo Penta, Marell Boats AB, and Hurtigruten Svalbard, the vessel was designed for Arctic exploration. It offers sightseeing tours in Svalbard during the high season (May-October).

The first of its kind hybrid-electric vessel, Kvitbjørn is powered by Volvo Penta twin D4-320 DPI Aquamatic hybrid solution engines. The boat has a top speed of 32 knots, a cruising speed of 25 knots and a range of 500 nautical miles. The complete power drivetrain solution for the vessel is based on the Volvo Penta D4/D6 Aquamatic DPI package.

“The difference from a traditional boat is the feeling of silence,” said Tore Hoem, adventures director at Hurti-

SPECIFICATIONS

Builder: Marell Boats AB

Designer: Hurtigruten Svalbard,

gruten Svalbard. “In electric mode, you can hear the sound of the glacier ice in the water, the breath of walruses — it will allow us to offer a truly unique experience to our customers. Enabling the optimal mix of low-speed, silent

cruising, and the ability to cover a lot of distance for the three- to four-hour duration of the tour. We look forward to the experience of driving it — and expect our guests will be just as excited by the silent experience on board.”

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

MISS KATIE

Dare County, N.C., and EJE Dredging Service took delivery of the Miss Katie, a shallowdraft 156'3"×35'×10'9" hopper dredge built at Conrad Shipyard, Morgan City, La., in August.

Wanchese, N.C., is the dredge’s homeport.

Construction on the dredge began in March 2021. Crowley Engineering Services designed the vessel with a 9'5" draft.

In 2019, Dare County approved a contract for the construction and operation of a new shallow-draft hopper dredge to address the signi cant shoaling that occurs in various channels and inlets throughout the county.

The Miss Katie “will be a game changer for watermen in Dare County,” said Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard. “It’s absolutely critical that we have the resources in place to properly dredge our channels and inlets that these watermen depend on as their highway to get to work every day, and thanks to the county’s partnership with EJE Dredging

and the arrival of Miss Katie, we’ll be much better equipped to do just that.”

Greenville, N.C.-based EJE Dredging owns and operates the dredge.

The shallow-draft, split-hull trailing-suction dredge’s main propulsion comes from twin Cummins QSK-19DM diesel engines connected to two ZF ATZ 4111-SM DA-FP sternmounted azimuth thrusters, each featuring depth adjustment. The dredge’s running speed is 10 knots.

The Miss Katie features a ZF ThrusterCommand AT control system.

In addition to providing controls for the two Wesmar V226SS thrusters, the control system provides follow-up steering and propulsion control, as well as independent backup and emergency stop systems.

The dredge features twin 5,000-gpm dredge pumps and has a capacity of 512 cu. yds. of spoils.

One other signi cant aspect of the new dredge is that it was speci cally developed and designed for the waters it will work.

“The Miss Katie has been speci cally developed and designed to ensure she will be able to safely navigate the channels and inlets of North Carolina,” said Jordan Hennessy, vice president of EJE Dredging. “The split-hull con guration will allow spoil discharge in shallow waters, thus preventing the vessel from grounding on her own hopper load.”

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

APALACHICOLA

is the 13th EPF, formerly known as joint high-speed vessels, the first of which was delivered by Austal USA in 2012.

The 338'×93'6" multihull, aluminum Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport vessel Apalachicola is part of the Military Sealift Command’s Sealift Program. Apalachicola is the 13th EPF, formerly known as the joint high-speed vessel, the rst of which was delivered by Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., in 2012.

If you’re thinking that EPF doesn’t line up with expeditionary fast transport, you’re not the only one.

The catamaran vessels have performed humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, maritime security, surveillance, command and control, counter narcotics, and additional operations around the world.

So what makes Apalachicola different from its predecessors? Austal USA was contracted to design, procure, implement, and demonstrate the Apalachicola as an autonomous platform, allowing the ship to operate autonomously while retaining the capability for manned operation, reducing cost and centralizing ship

operations to the bridge. Successful autonomous capability required modi cations to Austal’s machinery control system and hull mechanical and electrical systems, integration of L3Harris’ mission and navigational autonomy systems, and General Dynamics Mission Systems’ autonomous cyber solution to create the Navy’s largest unmanned surface vessel.

“EPF 13 is derived from Austal USA’s mature Spearhead-class EPF high-speed, exible, multihull aluminum vessel design,” Austal USA President Rusty Murdaugh said. “Our team was able to leverage the platform’s core automation capabilities and develop a software and hardware solution to enable autonomous operations.

“Successful autonomous capability,” he continued, “required modi cations to Austal’s machinery control system and hull mechanical and electrical systems, integration of L3Harris’ mission and navigational autonomy systems, and General Dynamics Mis-

SPECIFICATIONS

Builder:

Length: 338' Beam: 93'6" Draft: 13' Hull and Superstructure: Aluminum Main Propulsion: (4) MTU 20V8000

Marine Gear: ZF 60000 NRTH Propeller: (4) Wärtsilä Speed (knots): 33 Wipers: Imtra Exalto Delivery Date: September 2022

sion Systems’ autonomous cyber solution.” The result is the Navy’s largest unmanned surface vessel.

Main propulsion comes from four MTU 20V8000 diesel engines hooked up to four Wärtsilä steerable, reversing waterjets through four ZF 60000 NRTH gearboxes, giving the Apalachicola a speed of 33 knots with 380 metric tonnes of cargo, 21 knots with a mission payload of 231 metric tonnes of medical cargo, and 10 knots in sea state 5.

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loef er, R-Ga., ship sponsor of the Apalachicola, christened the vessel, the second Navy ship to be named after the Florida coast city.

The rst Navy ship named Apalachicola (YTB-767), a Natick-class large harbor tug, was also built in

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

Mobile, at  Mobile Ship Repair  in 1963.

“Today we celebrate the christening of the 13th EPF with an Austal team of more than 3,000 employees,” Murdaugh said during the ship’s christening ceremony. “Apalachicola’s sisterships are successfully supporting naval commands on the U.S. East and West Coasts, along with forward deployments in the Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean, South America, and Asia regions. In the coming months, this highly complex, high-speed ship will join the others to support our great Navy.”

Other features include a crew of 36; a medical detachment that boasts three VIPs and one officer in charge; eight isolation/acute care medical beds; two operating rooms (one major and one minor procedure), 23 medical ward beds, 10 ICU beds, and eight isolation/acute care beds;

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, ship sponsor of the Apalachicola, christened the expeditionary fast transport vessel on Nov. 13, 2021. It is the second Navy ship to be named after the Florida coast city.

an 11-meter (36') RIB launch and recovery system; and a hydraulic paint boom.

Austal USA is currently building

the future  Point Loma  (EPF 15). The shipyard is also building several littoral combat ships (LCS) for the Navy at its Gulf Coast shipyard.

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

TOBIN

In August, Silver Ships Inc., Theodore, Ala., delivered the largest marine survey vessel of its series, designed for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Venice Sub Of ce in Venice, La.

The 49' Tobin is the latest expansion in Silver Ships’ Endeavor series of workboats.

Tobin is custom designed for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hydrographically map the mouth of the Mississippi River. The missionspeci c vessel allows researchers to accurately and effectively obtain and document data on the river’s rapidly changing waters, data that will keep the waterway open and prevent obstructions to marine navigation. The custom vessel conducts condition surveys of the river to further the safety of marine operations.

“Tobin will join a fleet of vessels operating out of the USACE Venice

Sub Office that works year-round to provide river condition data to vessel operators,” Jason Powers, director of business development for Silver Ships, said. “This data is essential to the safe and efficient transportation of goods up and down the Mississippi River.”

The vessel is powered by twin Caterpillar C18 Tier 3 engines each putting out 800 hp at 2,100 rpm.

The package gives the survey boat a top speed of 28 knots, which helps prevent research delays, which is important considering the frequent changes in Mississippi River conditions.

A single Caterpillar C2.2 Tier 3 genset provides 25 kW of electric power for the Tobin’s air conditioning, echo sounder, and other electrical needs onboard.

“ Thompson CAT is proud to partner with Silver Ships for their power needs,” said Richard

SPECIFICATIONS

Tremayne, Thompson’s marine business manager. “Together our engineering teams have designed and built significant boats like Tobin over many years. High-performance power installations are always fun puzzles to solve with talented companies like the Silver Ships team.”

The Tobin operates with enhanced features such as the Twin Disc MGX5136RV marine gears, Michigan Wheel propellers, Furuno navigation and communication systems, Delta ‘T’ Systems engine room ventila-

tion, Arid Bilge Series 4 system, Imtra Decca wipers, and Ayres paneling.

With speeds that reach 28 knots, the surveying vessel allows researchers to acquire data quickly and prevent navigational miscues caused by changes in the river bottom.

Additionally, the Tobin is equipped with state-of-the-art technology including the EchoTrac, E-20 survey system, which is the key component that allows the vessel to take survey measurements. The E-20 uses a single-beam transducer that charts river depths and monitors water changes that could be potentially hazardous to vessels traversing the river.

The vessel’s name honors Thomas G. Tobin, who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District for more than 30 years. A capable engineer and brilliant programmer, Tobin developed systems that automated the processing and mapping of daily navigation condition surveys collected. He was a part of the engineering division channel improvement team, and he achieved success with their automated design functions that ensure ef cient operations of the Mississippi River.

Tobin passed away in 2016, at age 54, after a battle with cancer.

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

GEORGETOWN HERITAGE

New passenger vessel pays homage to tradition.

Roudebush Yacht & Engine Works, Dundalk, Md., delivered the 80'×12'×5'6", 75-passenger berglass/ composite Georgetown Heritage Canal Boat to Georgetown Heritage, a group tasked with restoring and revitalizing the historic Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal that runs through Washington, D.C.’s historic Georgetown neighborhood.

Designed by D.C.-based Tridentis, the Georgetown Heritage Canal Boat has a 1' draft and is built to be pulled along by two mules. Its propulsion package contains two electric Torqeedo 10 FP motors, sparking 5.6 kW of propulsive power at 1,400 rpm. The mains are connected to Torqeedo 1937-00, 12.6"×11" 5-bladed propellers. The package gives the boat a running speed of three knots. Six Torqeedo 485000 batteries provide service power.

Christopher Addington, Tridentis’ program manager for the project, said the intent of the design is to provide as close a replica to a 19th century canal workboat, right down to the mules (with electric motor backup). The overall goal is to update from the original 19th century design in order to reduce

SPECIFICATIONS

Builder: Roudebush Yacht & Engine

Designer: Tridentis

Owner: Georgetown Heritage

Mission: Carry passengers along the historic Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal

Length: 80'

Beam: 12' Depth: 5'6"

Draft: 1'

Hull/Superstructure: Fiberglass/composite

Main Propulsion: (2) Torqeedo electric 10 FP motors, 7.5 hp @ 1,400 rpm (max); (2) mules.

Passengers: 75

Propellers: (2) Torqeedo 1937-00, 12.6"x11", 5-bladed Ship’s Service Power: (6) Torqeedo 48-5000 batteries

Speed (knots): 3

Ancillary Equipment: Wooden poles, canopy, stainless steel rudders

Delivery Date: October 2021

maintenance and comply with current regulations.

The canal boat has a canopy that covers the passenger deck, providing shade and protection from the elements. The canopy was designed to allow the operators to transit across the top of it, providing forward and aft passage separated from the passenger deck. As the boat enters and exits the canal locks at numerous points along the trip, the operators use wooden poles that are stored atop the canopy to position the workboat inside the lock doors.

The stainless-steel rudders (one on each end) are hand operated by a tiller. The forward rudder is lifted via block and tackle and tied off. The boat has a 560-sq.-ft. cargo deck.

In an age where tradition is many times seen as an inability to accept change, here we have the Georgetown Heritage Canal Boat because the Georgetown Heritage Group thinks upholding tradition is worthwhile. That’s signi cant.

COURAGEOUS

Ferry operator gets back to operating without Covid-19 restrictions.

New York Harbor commuter ferry operator Seastreak upped its game in December 2021 with the arrival of the Courageous, a 720-passenger aluminum catamaran built by Midship Marine, Harvey, La., that stretches by 7' the eet’s last 150'×40' acquisition, the Commodore, delivered in 2018.  Incat Crowther handled the design chores.

“It’s basically a sistership, but it’s a couple of frames larger,” said Seastreak president Jim Barker. The other difference is upgrades in passenger amenities and comfort. “It’s a couple of notches above any ferry boat I’ve ever seen.”

With steady increases in passenger volume and company growth, Seastreak of cials made the decision to go even bigger in 2019, stepping up from the 600-passenger capacity of the Commodore. As the Covid-19 pandemic struck in spring 2020, the company saw ridership plunge.

But Seastreak persevered with the newbuild plan, and the new vessel’s name was conceived as a tribute to medical workers who continued to travel by ferry to treat Covid patients, said James D. Barker, Seastreak’s director of business development and marketing.

After making the transit from New Orleans to New Jersey, the Courageous started service in mid-December 2021, running peak departures including 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. out of the Seastreak terminal at Highlands, N.J.

One important design difference with Courageous is a modi ed bow radius that allows more versatility with bow loading at different landings. That includes matching to the Steamship Authority docks at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a big summer destination for Seastreak customers.

Main propulsion comes from four MTU 12V4000 M64 diesel engines producing 1,873 hp at 1,800 rpm each. The mains are connected to four Kongsberg KaMeWa 5654 waterjets.

Ship’s service power is the responsibility of twin John Deere 6068 SFM85 gensets. The new ferry is USCG certi ed Subchapter K.

With a wheelhouse electronics suite by Furuno USA, the Courageous has a distinctive LED lighting system on outdoor areas of the vessel with a red, white, and blue color scheme. Imtra supplied Norsap seats, Exalto wipers, LED lighting, Libra doors, and DHR navigation lights.

Another major upgrade is the latest-technology insulated glass in the cabin windows. The glass reduces the solar load on the passenger cabin and provides fog-free views, a major problem on older boats during the frigid harbor winters.

The company had its best season ever in 2019, and with the easing of restrictions during 2021 saw commuter ridership return to almost 60% of that baseline.

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

Maryland vessel has multiple functions including buoy tending and icebreaking.

Blount Boats Inc., Warren, R.I., delivered the steelhulled 94'×27'×10' buoy tender/icebreaker Eddie Somers in May to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The boat was designed by BMT Designers & Planners Inc., Arlington, Va. It features a 4'6" draft and a 157 LT displacement.

The boat is serving as the primary icebreaking asset for Cris eld Harbor and Smith Island, in addition to placing buoys and performing additional functions.

The Department of Natural Resources’ hydrographic operations team, based on the eastern shore, operates four large boats that perform various duties throughout Chesapeake Bay. The department’s boats are shallow draft, enabling them to enter rivers and shallow areas of the bay.

The Somers is a lifeline to Smith Island when the waters surrounding it freeze over, clearing a path for supply and shuttle boats.

Main propulsion comes from twin Cummins QSK19, Tier 3 diesel engines, producing 750 hp at 1,800 rpm,

SPECIFICATIONS

Builder: Blount Boats Inc.

Designer: BMT Designers & Planners Inc.

Owner: Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Mission: Icebreaker/buoy tender to operate in Chesapeake Bay for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Length: 94' Beam: 27' Depth: 10' Draft: 4'6"

Hull and Superstructure: Steel

Main Propulsion: (2) Cummins QSK19, Tier 3, 750 hp @ 1,800 rpm

Marine Gear: (2) Twin Disc MGX-52025C, 2.48:1 Propeller: (2) New England Propeller

Ship’s Service Power: (2) Cummins Onan, 55 kW

Tankage (gallons): Fuel, 1987; water, 1,000 Delivery Date: May 2022

supplied by Cummins Northeast. The mains hook up with Michigan Wheel 42"×27", 5-bladed nibral props through Twin Disc marine gears with a 2.48:1 reduction ratio. The propellers come from New England Propeller, the gears from North Atlantic Power Products. The propulsion package gives the new boat a running speed of 10 knots (loaded) at 1,650 rpm and a top speed of 12 knots.

Ship’s service power is the responsibility of two Cummins Onan gensets, producing 55 kW of electrical power each. The steering system is a Jastrom B2-76-400-1-35 and the controls are 3-station Twin Disc EC300s.

Imtra supplied Exalto wipers and Norsap seating.

The electronics suite was supplied by Cay Electronics, while on deck the boat is tted with a MERCAL FL20T4 knuckle boom crane. The vessel is built to ABS standards and USCG certi ed, Subchapter T.

SIGNIFICANT BOATS OF 2022

MARK W BARKER

River-class, self-unloading bulk carrier operates on the Great Lakes.

SPECIFICATIONS

Anew, U.S.- agged Great Lakes bulk carrier built at a Great Lakes shipyard has been delivered for the rst time in 40 years.

In 2019, the Interlake Steamship Co., awarded a contract to Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding to build a new River-class, self-unloading bulk carrier.

It is believed to be the rst ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes since 1983. The ship will transport raw materials to support manufacturing in the Great Lakes region.

The 639'×78'×45', 28,000-dwt Mark W Barker was built at Bay Ship in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. Interlake Steamship, Middleburg Heights, Ohio, operates the largest privately held U.S.- ag eet on the Great Lakes, with nine vessels that carry bulk cargoes. Its newest vessel, until now, the Paul R. Tregurtha, was built at American Ship Building Co., Lorain, Ohio, in 1981. The 1,013'×105'×56' Paul R. Tregurtha has a capacity of 68,000 tons and is the longest vessel on the Great Lakes.

Bay Engineering Inc., Sturgeon Bay, designed the Mark W Barker bulk

carrier, complete with advanced vessel and unloading systems automation.

With a draft of 29'1", the new selfunloading bulk carrier has a unique cargo hold arrangement and cargo hatch covers designed for maximum cubic space and the ability to handle dif cult cargoes. The vessel incorporates a ap rudder as well as bow and stern thrusters for high-level maneuverability.

Travis Martin, president, Bay Engineering, noted that there is “added protection from damage such as doublebottom and side-shell voids above damage stability requirements.”

The ship also has a sliding cargo bulkhead door forward and aft garages with garage-door access to cargo holds that provide storage for two Caterpillar 938M front-end loaders and two T870 Bobcat box girder systems with only a single transverse bulkhead.

The new bulk carrier is a gravity, self-unloading/mechanical unloading vessel used for hauling cargoes of salt, coal, iron ore pellets, stone, sand, and hot briquette iron (HBI). It’s design also allows for carrying unique cargo

874,000 cu. ft. Delivery Date: August 2022

on spur deck hatch covers.

The 15,507 gt. Mark W Barker’s main propulsion comes from two 16-cylinder EMD 16ME23B Tier 4 diesel engines, producing 4,000 hp at 900 rpm each. The mains are connected to Kongsberg KaMeWa 4-bladed controllable pitch propellers built to Ice 1C standards (but not classed) through Lufkin CSQ11400-5-PTO 7.5:1 marine gears. The vessel has a running speed of 13 mph.

The Mark W Barker was fitted with two Kongsberg thrusters for added maneuverability — one bow and one stern. Kongsberg also handled the steering system and controls duties for the new bulk carrier.

Tankage includes 109,077 gals. of diesel fuel; 16,939 gals. potable water; 6,444 gals. urea; 7,504 gals. lube oil; and 19,770 gals. ef uents.

For electrical power, there’s a Caterpillar C32 ACERT marine package genset rated at 940-kW, two 2,500-kW shaft generators and one 274-kW emergency generator.

Vessel Report RIBs

The distance the RIBS operate from the Navy vessels “varies according to the mission and what they are utilizing to go after — small arms or other,” said Silver Ships David Hunt.

Hunt said the most noteworthy work at Silver Ships “is the multiyear contracts we have going with the Navy.”

There’s a ve-year contract for ve different variants of eight- and 11-meter RIBS, which will consist of either cabin and center console RIBs or a combination. Included in the mix will be support boats for Navy SEAL training. Other RIBs will go to the Coast Guard to be used as special purpose craft for law enforcement.

“Over the course of ve years there will be a couple of hundred,” said Hunt.

Another order is for 11-meter (36'×10') RIBs for the Marine Corps to be used as safety boats supporting amphibious training, which are basically “carbon copies” of boats built for the Marines in 2018. It’s a three-year package with 10 boats for 2022, 10 to 15 boats in 2023 and the remaining boats in 2024.

Hunt said the Marines chose the RIBs “because they are geared to carrying signi cant numbers of passengers,” as many as 25, making it challenging for boats to run in all conditions. They are built for carrying heavy loads because “they don’t know when they might have to rescue personnel from the water.”

Overall, Hunt doesn’t expect any real design changes for Silver Ships RIBs. “The biggest changes we see as a company is trying to keep up with changes in technology.”

An example is Silver Ships recent adaptation of Mercury Marine’s V10 350-hp Verado outboard with increased power and torque.

“We have to make some adaptions so we can start to utilize that power,” Hunt said.

WILLARD MARINE

Willard Marine Inc., Oceanside, Calif., debuted an updated version of

its seven-meter (23'9"×9') RIB, the SeaForce 777, at December’s International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans.

Two things immediately noticeable on the SeaForce 777 are its new deck design and the 300-hp Oxe diesel-powered outboard. The deck is completely ush and set up for using rail-mounted modular seats instead of single placement seats.

There will also be Humphree interceptor trim tabs “to bring it up on a plane faster than it had been in the past,” said Willard Marine’s Jordan Angle.

Willard Marine is working with two companies to improve the seven-meter RIB’s hull ef ciency.

The goal is not to maximize speed

— currently the seven-meter hull has a speed limit of about 38 knots — but to help the “hull ride softer for more operator safety and comfort,” said Angle.

The focus is on hull ef ciency that will help cut fuel costs and improve operator comfort and safety. Willard Marine has learned, after providing boats to the military for the past 35 years, “that the vast majority of career boat operators end up going out on disability because of G-forces experienced on the boat,” said Angle. Thus, the introduction of the shock-mitigating seats on the seven-meter RIB and a softer riding hull “so operators don’t end up going out on disability.”

Willard Marine has used shockmitigating seats on its larger 11-meter boats and some seven-meter boats for the Army’s Special Forces.

Now the company hopes to convince the Navy to out t all of its seven-meter boats with shock-mitigating seats.

While the seats are expensive, “it’s less expensive than having to pay for people being on disability for the rest of their lives,” Angle said.

The seven-meter is out tted with a 300-hp Oxe diesel. Since the motor weighs about 1,000 lbs., the seven-meter hull is limited to a single outboard.

However, on Willard Marine’s 11-meter RIB (36'4"×11'9"), Angle hopes to mount two 300-hp Oxe diesel outboards.

CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AT WORKBOAT YARDS

Gladding-Hearn delivers 73' pilot boat to Texas

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corp., Somerset, Mass., has delivered a fourth pilot boat to the Galveston-Texas City Pilots in Galveston, Texas.

The new 73.2'×23.3' launch, Texas City, has a draft of 5.9' and is equipped with a Seakeeper 30HD stabilizing gyro, which, according to shipyard officials, will reduce the vessel’s roll by up to 80%.

“The additional stabilizing gyro reduces roll at all speeds and will improve safety and reduce fatigue, especially while standing by for ships offshore and boarding pilots in a sloppy anchorage,” Peter Duclos, the shipyard’s co-president, said in a statement.

Designed by Ray Hunt Design, New Bedford, Mass., with a deep-V hull, the aluminum launch is powered

by three Volvo Penta D13, EPA Tier 3 marine diesel engines, each delivering 800 hp at 2,300 rpm, and integral to the engines’ triple IPS-Pod 1050 system. The main engines connect to forward facing, counter-rotating nibral props through Volvo Penta IPS-30 propulsion pods. Top speed is over 33 knots,

BOATBUILDING BITTS

a Markey Machinery Co. DEPC-48 bow winch. Crowley Engineering Services designed the tugs, which will meet Coast Guard Subchapter M regulations and will be classed through the American Bureau of Shipping

and the pilot boat hits 30 knots at 80% power. The vessel will burn 30% less fuel than the pilots’ existing 70’ pilot boats at the same speed, according to Duclos.

Humphree interceptors were installed at the transom to automatically optimize the vessels running trim, and actively reduce pitch and roll at speeds above 15 knots.

The wheelhouse, mounted to the flush deck aft of amidships, features a center-line helm station, with a twinlever control head and a 3-axis maneuvering joystick. The wheelhouse has heated forward and side windows, six Norsap 1500 shock-mitigating seats and a settee with table.

Ship’s service power is the responsibility of two Phasor K4 gensets, sparking 21 kW of electricity each.

The forecastle includes a stateroom with two berths, head, hanging locker, small galley and dinette. HVAC in the wheelhouse and forecastle is supplied by six self-contained, reverse-cycle air-conditioning units, totaling 80,000 Btus. Interior sound levels at full power are under 75 dBA.

Tugs will have a bollard pull over 55 metric tons.

Master Boat Builders Inc., Coden, Ala., has been awarded a contract to build two 86'x36' tugboats for Moran Towing Corp., New Canaan, Conn. The new tugs will be the first that Master Boat will build for Moran. The tugs, which will produce a bollard pull of over 55 metric tons, will feature two Tier 4 Caterpillar 3512E main engines, each producing 2,549 hp, along with two Kongsberg US 205S thrusters, and

A new 32-meter (105') crew transfer vessel design from BMT features a larger deck area and increased load capacity, along with BMT’s Z-bow designed for superior seakeeping ability. The fully hybrid power design’s improved load capability will enable it to play a bigger role during offshore wind construction phases and support larger vessels working on the projects, BMT said.

The Lake Superior Research Institute (LSRI) at the University of WisconsinSuperior has awarded a contract to Australia-based Incat Crowther to design a new low-emission battery

New 32-meter crew transfer vessel design. BMT

hybrid research vessel. Described as a “floating classroom”, the 65' USCGcertified catamaran will support the university’s on-water education and research and will feature proven parallel hybrid battery propulsion technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help meet the university’s environmental objectives. The vessel will have a capacity of 49 passengers and eight crew.

Outside the wheelhouse are wide side decks and a ush main deck. On the foredeck, aft of the wave break, are port and starboard boarding platforms. A Carlisle & Finch search light, with integrated NightFINDER thermal camera, is located at the forward end of the wheelhouse roof. A Harken Industrial TR31 safety rail system has been installed on the wheelhouse handrails. A control station, with a 3-axis maneuvering joystick, is at the transom, along with a winch-operated J-Basket rescue system and recessed stairs and platform for pilot rescue operations.

The electronics suite includes Furuno FAR218B radar with XN20CF 6.5' scanner and MU190HD 19" monitor; TZT19F MFD, TZT16F MFD, SC-33 Sat compass, DFF3D sonar, GP330B GPS sensor navigation system; GP330B GPS; DFF3D depth sounder; SC33 satellite compass; Volvo Penta autopilot; Standard Horizon GX6000 VHF radios with antennas interfaced with GPS; and GX6000 with integral hailer.

Tankage includes 1,500 gals. of fuel and 50 gals. fresh water. Texas City car-

ries a crew of two. The pilot boat was delivered in November. — Ken Hocke

Chesapeake begins work on coastal cat for ACL

Construction has begun on the American Liberty, the third new 241'×56', 105-passenger coastal catamaran in the American Cruise Lines’ Project Blue series. First announced in January, the Project Blue series is a set of 12 small coastal cruise ships designed to cover almost any domestic cruise itinerary, ACL said. American Liberty features a similar hull design as the company’s

previously announced coastal cats. All ships are being built at ACL’s Chesapeake Shipbuilding, Salisbury, Md.

The new eet will operate exclusively in the U.S., with a focus on small towns and close-to-home adventures.

“Project Blue started as a design challenge to create a boat small enough for New England harbors and stable enough for the Alaska Inside Passage, with a draft shallow enough for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway,” Charles B. Robertson, president and CEO of ACL, said when the building program was announced last January. “These boats can run almost anywhere, and because there will be 12 of them, they

65' research vessel will ply California waters.

All American Marine Inc. (AAM), Bellingham, Wash., was recently awarded a contract from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for a 74'x27'6" catamaran patrol vessel. The aluminum catamaran will patrol California state coastal waters and international waters for the CDFW. The twin engine, fixed-propeller patrol vessel will be built to Coast Guard standards. The

hydrofoil-assisted vessel designed by Teknicraft Design, Auckland, New Zealand, will combine design features critical to modern maritime law enforcement and is based on the AAMbuilt Captain Murchison, operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The vessel features Teknicraft’s Rapid RIB launching and retrieval system. The system, integrated into the vessel’s stern, will reduce the time and manpower required to deploy the vessel’s rigid hull inflatable boat, shipyard officials said. It will allow for deployment and retrieval in under a minute.

Americraft Marine Group and its Palatka, Fla.-based shipyard St. Johns Ship Building Inc. are increasing capacity for the construction of crew transfer vessels (CTVs) and other offshore wind related vessels. Americraft and St.

Johns have received final approval of a Maritime Administration (Marad) grant modification. The investment, along with the matching grant, will provide additional equipment and fabrication infrastructure specifically targeted at helping expand the yard for the concurrent construction of multiple CTVs. Marad awarded a $1.34 million grant to St. Johns last year to support the con-

ON THE WAYS

will be deployed all over the United States.”

Details concerning the boats equipment such as engines, gears, generators and the electronics suite were not released.

The rst two ships in the series, the American Eagle and American Glory, are scheduled to begin sailing in 2023. American Liberty is set to begin cruising in May 2024.

American Liberty and the other ships in the series will feature amenities including 56 staterooms and suites, each with a private balcony, spacious lounges, and multiple dining venues. The ship’s catamaran hull form also allows for a wide activity platform at the stern, equipped with kayaks and a large tender for in-depth adventures directly from the ship.  ACL said the new boats will feature an innovative hybrid catamaran design that will give the cats “unprecedented nearshore operating versatility.”

BOATBUILDING BITTS

struction of a 2,000-ton drydock.

Orion Marine Group christened its newest dredge, Lavaca, at Port Lavaca, Texas, in November. The recently commissioned Lavaca underwent a complete rebuild over 15 months. The Shearer Group Inc. provided detailed engineering to meet Orion’s requirements for lengthening and widening of the hull at Southwest Shipyard L.P. The rebuilt Lavaca has been outfitted with the latest technology including onboard continuous survey monitoring systems, dredge pump, draw works, and cutter automation systems with fully electric draw works and spud winch systems, allowing the dredge to operate more efficiently in both maintenance and virgin material projects. The design of the dredge, including its modular quarters, walkways, access and egress points, ventilation, handrail and fendering systems, have all been engineered specifically with an emphasis on safety.

Bisso Towboat Co. Inc., Luling, La., announced recently that Main Iron Works LLC, Houma, La., will build another tug for the company. The 5,000-hp ASD tractor tug will feature a pair of Caterpillar 3516E Tier 4F main propulsion engines each generating 2,500 hp at 1,600 rpm. The engines will drive two Kongsberg US205S azimuthing thrusters with 2.4 meter-dia. stainless steel propellers in stainless steel nozzles. Estimated bollard pull for the new tug is 66 tons. Auxiliary equipment will include a JonRie Intertech Series 240 escort winch, Caterpillar C4.4 118-kw generator sets and a full complement of safety, monitoring and electronic equipment. Tankage will include 30,162 gals. of diesel fuel; 1,442 gals. of lube oil; 1,442 gals. of hydraulic oil; 2,000 gals. of DEF; and 9,538 gals. of potable water.

Boats on Display

Boats that were featured on the show floor at the 42nd International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans in December 2022.

Interested in exhibiting a boat at the 2023 International WorkBoat Show? Contact: csalmon@divcom.com / www.workboatshow.com

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Lake Assault Boats LLC, Superior, Wis., had its 22' and 24' rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) at the show. The boats can operate in as little as 12" to 14" of water. The boats’ heavy-duty collar is available in three configurations — air filled, high density foam, and hybrid air bladder.

Netherlands-based Whaly specializes in small polyethylene workboats that come in lengths of 6'11", 8'10", 10'2", 12'2", 13', and 14'4".

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Whaly boats are used by dredging companies, fire departments, customs, public works departments and others.

Tideman Boats, North Andover, Mass., promoted three high-density polyethylene (HDPE) models at the show — the 28'6" RBB 90 2WJ crew tender, the 28'6" RBB 900 WJ cabin, and the 23.3' RBB 700 20B. HDPE has a 20% lower carbon footprint than aluminum.

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Ocean Craft Marine, Annapolis, Md., builds four models of its professional purpose-built boats. The company displayed a 30'4"x10'5" law enforcement boat for the Texas Highway Patrol at the show. Mercury outboards push the boat to a top speed of 63 mph.

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Willard Marine, Anaheim, Calif., and Virginia Beach, Va., displayed its Sea Force 700 built for the Navy. The 23'9", 18-person fiberglass RIB comes with a multichamber polyurethane puncture resistant collar. Propulsion comes from a 258-hp Steyr diesel.

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Among the models that Safe Boats International, Bremerton, Wash., brought to the show was its 39'2"x10' Safe 38 full cabin boat. It has a range of 360 nautical miles at 34 knots. The 1,275 hp Safe 38 can reach a top speed of 55 knots.

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8 The all-electric Vita Yachts

Seal measures 7 meters (22.96') and is designed for both commercial and recreational use. With one hour of charge time, the boat can reach a cruising speed of 20 knots and a top speed of 30 knots.

Legacy Innovations LLC, Rozat, Wyo., and Naplesyacht, Fort Myers, Fla., have been contracted to build marine platforms centered around durable high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is ultra-violet, chemical, fatigue, and abrasion resistant.

North River Boats, Roseburg, Ore., displayed a 26'x8'6" aluminum survey boat for the Los Angeles Division of the Army Corps of Engineers at the show. The boat is one of North River’s Sounder models which feature a 36" side height and 20° deadrise.

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Rebound

News from the 42nd International WorkBoat Show.

The 2022 International WorkBoat Show, held in New Orleans in December, marked the rst time since 2019 that the show was held while not under the cloud of the pandemic. Last year, the show returned after a two-year hiatus.

And like last year, offshore wind was a major presence. Stability and predictability are two hurdles the U.S. offshore wind industry must clear to build out the new eet it needs, panelists said at a Think Tank session at the show.

“For us, the biggest challenge is seeing these projects permitted and moved forward,” said William Hanson, senior vice president for market development with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. LLC, which is building the  rst U.S.- ag subsea rock installation vessel for the U.S. offshore wind market.

“We knew being rst to market with a Jones Act-compliant rock vessel would be attractive,” said Hanson, explaining how Great Lakes studied its plan for

This year’s WorkBoat Show attracted thousands of attendees, marking a return to near prepandemic attendance numbers.

several years before having the ship built on spec at Philly Shipyard. The vessel will begin working in 2025 on Equinor’s Empire Wind turbine project off New York Harbor, and has other work lined up into 2030, said Hanson.

After that, “will it be as busy?” Hanson added. “We’ll see.”

The Biden administration’s march toward a goal of 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 has developers and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management busy, with the agency planning for projects from New England to the Carolinas.

“The key is going to be establishing durability for this industry,” said John Begala, the Business Network for

Offshore Wind’s vice president for federal and state policy. Administration planners “need to stick by their 16 COPs (construction and operations plans) by the end of their term. Then we can say this industry is on a glide path to success.”

It’s critical to make sure all sectors of the U.S. maritime industry can share in that future, said Aaron Smith, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association.

“Look at the show. Anyone can tell you it’s buzzing, it’s packed,” Smith told the standing-room audience for the Think Tank panel titled “U.S. Shipbuilders, Mariners and Operators Role in Offshore Energy.”

There is a need to “make sure everyone has a level playing eld,” said Smith. “If not, that entire hall is going to be unhappy in a few years.”

“When a foreign- ag vessel is operating in U.S. waters, they can basically hire whoever they want,” said Smith, whose group advocates for tighter enforcement and new legislation to regulate how oil and gas and wind developers can use foreign vessels on projects. All companies have “investors and boards to answer to,” and won’t spend to hire U.S. mariners unless the rules compel them, he stressed.

“The problem comes with exceptions and enforcement that have evolved over time, said Robert Vosbein, executive vice president of Harvey Gulf International Marine

Crewing an offshore service vessel with a U.S. mariner can cost $700 a day, compared to using a foreign national who works for $100 a day, said Vosbein.

“These are not exaggerations,” Vosbein added. “It’s a completely unlevel playing eld.” Smith cited wind developers’ help-wanted postings on LinkedIn social media pages that explicitly call for non-U.S. mariners.

“We’re very heavily regulated” and foreign vessels and crews need not conform to the same U.S. rules, said Vosbein. It is “incredibly more difcult” in comparison for a U.S. company to simply move containers on an OSV, he said. The prospect of developers using foreign- ag vessels is a disincentive for U.S. companies to invest in new vessels for the wind market, Vosbein and Smith said.

For U.S. shipbuilders “offshore wind is a generational market,” said Paula Zorensky, vice president of the Shipbuilders Council of America.

Demand will create the market, but the industry needs “stability and predictability … and on-time budgets,” said Zorensky. Much of that certainty needs to come from the government and Customs and Border Protection, with its interpretation of Jones Act questions and related regulations, she said.

OFFSHORE WIND ADVOCATES SEE GULF OF MEXICO FUTURE

The mega-population centers that attract offshore wind energy companies to the U.S. East Coast are spread farther along the Gulf of Mexico. But the Gulf’s immense industrial appetite for energy is making it look like a good bet for the wind industry’s future.

Two wind energy areas – one 24 miles off Galveston, Texas, with 508,265 acres, and another 56 miles south of Lake Charles, La., with 174,275 acres – are the rst laid out by the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management.

The Gulf states’ industry, with its deep experience in offshore energy work, is already involved in the East Coast wind projects. Some 20% of

those contracts have gone to Gulf states, according to the non-pro t Business Network for Offshore Wind, which says half of its new members are from the region.

There are now around 1,200 offshore wind supply contracts in the domestic U.S. market, said Liz Burdock, CEO and president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind during a Dec. 2 update at the WorkBoat Show. Some $12.7 billion invested in the U.S. so far includes $5.38 billion paid to BOEM for leasing.

The investments include upgrades and new construction at 21 ports on the East Coast, and “I don’t think we’re done on the East Coast by any means,” said Burdock. To serve those projects 23 vessels are now under construction or being retro tted, she said.

The industry’s top vessel needs are: wind turbine installation vessels, cable laying ships, feeder barges to carry turbine components, service operations vessels and rock laying ships to place armoring around turbine foundations. Looking at the pace of planned U.S. projects and the supply of vessels, 2026 could be a year of bottlenecks, said Burdock. — K. Moore

LABOR SHORTAGE, LOW WATER PLAGUE INLAND OPERATORS

At an International WorkBoat Show Think Tank panel on the state of the inland waterways, much of the discussion centered on the tight labor market and low water levels.

WorkBoat’s Washington, D.C., cor-

respondent Pamela Glass moderated the panel that featured Austin Golding, president of Golding Barge Line, Vicksburg, Miss., and Paul Rhode, Midwest region vice president at the Waterways Council’s St. Louis of ce.

Rhode noted that river conditions this year are reminiscent of 2012, with the caveat that 2022’s low water came earlier than the one a decade ago, and with worse effects at points. He also said the increased media focus around this year’s situation stemming at least in part from the public generally being more focused on the entire supply chain.

Golding said the “stressed” areas were dredging capacity and approachability of docks. He said inland operators have had to deal with variances of as much as 40 or 50 feet over a 12-month period.

The labor shortage is being felt by both marine and land-based compa-

nies. It’s something that Golding said is affecting his own business, though he mentions that it’s not really from a lack of workers, but rather workers that are shifting industries. He said they may give the barge industry a try, but then quickly move to other industries like manufacturing and trucking. That leads to retention being the biggest issue rather than simply nding workers, something that can be most effectively solved by ensuring your company provides real opportunities for growth.

Golding and Rhode said that companies need to meet prospective employees where they are by targeting job postings on social media sites and hosting job fairs in more rural areas.

Golding also highlighted the ability to grow within a company, and the path to earning six- gure salaries being much quicker than in most other industries. He also stressed the importance of making vessels as comfortable as possible, ensuring that living spaces “feel like home” by including amenities such as internet access in all bunk rooms. — Matt Collins

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT CONCERNS TAKE CENTER STAGE

Hiring and retaining workers was on top of everyone’s mind at the WorkBoat Show. Although no one has a silver bullet to solve the workforce problem, training schools and maritime companies have developed new approaches to at-

tract new talent and retain those they have.

They cited efforts to reach out early to young kids and their parents (and grandparents), offer good internet connections and comfortable living quarters on vessels, assure strong career paths within a company, make mental health services available, promote jobs as a unique adventure with good pay and bene ts, and retool training to offer a digitalsavvy generation more online instruction when appropriate.

Most agree that the industry does a poor job of promoting itself as a great place to work, and that people beyond the rivers or coasts or those who don’t already have a family maritime connection know little about the profession or the importance of maritime jobs to the economy.

“We need to promote it as an industry that’s exciting,” said Martin Glenday, president of Moxie Media, a New Orleansbased media design and production company that works with maritime clients. “The PR has not been good. This is a great story that doesn’t get a lot of attention.”

Maritime schools are also rethinking how they recruit students, casting a wider geographic, demographic and age net for recruiting, and moving into training students for jobs in emerging energy elds.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) has developed a new niche in training for the edging offshore wind industry, promoting it as a new and exciting career opportunity, and explaining to potential students the excitement of being able to train on a new, state-of-the-art training ship that is due to be delivered to MMA in 2024.

The academy, located on Cape Cod, has also extended its outreach programs to students, starting in the fth grade. “We invite them to campus, we are going into schools,” said Maryanne Richards, director of career and professional services at MMA told a WorkBoat Show session on workforce development. “Because of the changing demographics, with not as many students graduating from high school, we are doing more initiatives to children and their parents.”

MMA also offers a summer camp that gives youngsters a avor of life on campus. They experience a navigational simulator, board the school’s training ship and learn about jobs after graduation, she said.

At Delgado Community College in New Orleans, which has a Maritime and Industrial Training Center, the emphasis is on educating “parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters” as well as well as potential students as young as the fourth to seventh grades about maritime careers, according to Rick Schwab, senior director of workforce development and education.

“We let people sit in on navigation class, visit simulators,” he said, adding that the school has prepared a list of quali cations for certain maritime jobs to match a job skill to training requirements. “We have a list of qualities to be competent in a job like mate or tankerman, and we show it to a parent or counselor. They didn’t realize that these vessels are multimillion dollar technical machines. We’re trying to get them to think out of the box of skilled labor being a more

To help address the workboat industry’s ongoing workforce problems, speakers said that the industry must do a better job in promoting itself as an exciting place to work. technical expertise.”

Schwab said it’s important to show students that there’s a progressive career path in the industry. “You need to give them goals to attain, give people promise and motivation,” he said. “We treat a deckhand like a captain because one day (he or she) will be a captain.” — Pamela Glass

Cordage companies continue to tout the benefits of synthetic towlines.

Getting inland barge companies to replace wire towing cables with synthetic line is key for cordage companies that want to gain more traction in the towing market.

But it can be dif cult convincing companies to make the switch. To start with, “riverboat operators may not be aware of this type of rope and the bene ts and options they have,” said Garrett Krapf, regional account manager with Yale Cordage, Saco, Maine. He added that “change is dif cult.”

The bene ts of synthetic line include weight savings and usability. Synthetic line is seven times lighter per-diameter than wire and easier for deckhands to work with. There’s signicantly less chance for injuries, and “that’s the big thing, back injuries and worker’s comp claims,” said Krapf. “One worker’s comp claim from a deckhand with injuries from throwing wire around can really hurt the company. It’s a lot easier to handle something that’s seven times lighter.” Additionally, synthetic line doesn’t rust or kink.

A company that switches from wire to rope has a learning

curve. “You don’t want just a swap out,” Krapf said. Synthetic line compared with wire is soft and needs to be protected. Thus, winch drums, anges, bollards, chalks, and whatever the wire has passed over and worn into needs to be inspected. Any sharp edges must be ground down and resurfaced, otherwise the line, especially when under a signi cant amount of tension, could fail.

For a towboat that’s about the worst thing that can happen. Then the towed vessel could suddenly go adrift, a line snaps back and severely injures or — worst-case scenario —kills a deckhand. Decreasing the chance for line failure was the impetus behind the introduction of Yale’s River Max and Samson Rope’s Icaria and IntelliTag.

River Max, a rebranded product, is still known as Mega Max in the industrial market. River Max was introduced to the workboat market last summer. It’s designed to take the place of cha ng sleeves that protect a tow line from abrasion where there’s high wear potential, such as the edge of a barge.

River Max is a double-braided rope of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) ber, with a diameter ranging from 5/8" to 1 1/2" that covers up and protects 12-strand

Ultrex line that’s the River Max’s loadbearing core. River Max is a core-dependent rope, meaning that 100% of the rope’s strength comes from the core — the 12-strand Ultrex line. The protective jacket doesn’t provide any line strength. It’s strictly there for abrasion protection.

When the River Max UHMWPE covering starts to wear though from abrasion, just strip the jacket off to repair or replace it. “The 12-strand Ultrex line should be in great shape,” said Krapf.

River Max works best taking the place of face and wing wires.

River Max “is a game changer,” Krapf said. Deckhands no longer have to change sections of chafing on the line that might get hung up in the roller buttons or chalks. When barge tows being hooked up and moved around and there’s only short sections of chafing, that chafing must be positioned and then repositioned. But with River Max, the entire line is covered.

“You can save 10 to 15 minutes per hookup,” Krapf said. At the end of the day “that turns into hours and equals x amount of barges that can be moved. Each barge loaded is x amount of dollars.” Currently, River Max is in the trial stages with five or six riverboat companies.

SAMSON ROPE

Avoiding towline failures begins with constantly monitoring the condi-

tion of the towline to ensure that it stays within an acceptable safety profile and is retired when it no longer fits that profile. By itself, a visual inspection isn’t enough to monitor whether a towing line stays within a certain safety profile.

Samson Rope’s Icaria, which brings the digital age to towline management, seems a good place to start moving beyond relying on visual inspections to track a line’s usage or measuring a line’s life expectancy based on the number of jobs or the hours or months it’s been in use.

Icaria was first introduced to the mooring industry about four years ago. Recently, Samson tailored Icaria to the line inspection needs of the workboat industry, for tracking and inspecting line “to determine when to retire a line before it breaks,” said Samson’s William Pernett.

It was introduced to the workboat market in June and is mostly being targeted at the ship-assist tug and riverboat markets on the Mississippi River, said Michelle Jarvis, Samson’s commercial marine product manager. “You can manage all your lines and inspections for all your vessels.”

Using a mobile app, Icaria lets you visually document a line’s inspection on deck. Then, a Samson service technician can review the inspection and “offer professional advice when there’s an issue or a problem,” said Pernett. The line inspection is automatically copied and sent to Samson. The tug’s captain or the fleet manager can access the same information.

Documenting a towline’s wear and any repairs that have been made provides a good idea of when a towline should be retired. “A lot of users have the potential of getting more life out of their rope, rather than just retire rope based on its operations,” said Pernett. Vessel owners have told him “that’s something they really like.”

Samson’s Icaria also has other line related programs. There’s a training platform that includes 12 courses related to line inspection, line installing, repairs and safety. “The classes are

internet, video based,” said Jarvis, and there’s a course completion certificate from Samson. Operators can take the certificates “from vessel to vessel that shows their competency in line management.”

If you aren’t sure of a towing line’s condition or even what line it is, you can find out with Samson’s IntelliTag, which wraps around a towline and has radio frequency identification (RFID) capabilities. Just scan the IntelliTag with a mobile device that reads RFID — most smartphones do — then “you know what rope you are looking at, its diameter, strength and certificate number,” said Pernett. Currently, all Samson vessel lines come with IntelliTag.

Samson showed off the latest generation of its Saturn-12 at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans in December. Made with Avient’s Dyneema SK78 fiber, it’s a 12-strand working line with sizes that range from ¼"-dia. with an average strength of 8,600 lbs. to 3 ½"-dia. with an average strength of 1.17 million lbs.

Previous Saturn-12 cordage had a black line for twist identification. The new Saturn-12 is distinctively twotoned orange and black, making it much easier to see if there’s a twist in the line. Any time there’s a twist in the line, the line’s strength is diminished.

. . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Incat Crowther . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

International WorkBoat Show 56

Karl Senner, LLC CV4

Rapp Marine U.S. Inc/MacGregor CV2

Marine Jet Power AB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Metalcraft Marine Inc Sig Boats CV2 Nautical Marketing/FuelTrax 7

Pennel USA 19

Progress Rail Sig Boats CV4

RIBCRAFT USA 44 R W Fernstrum & Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Scienco/Fast Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 43

Silver Ships Inc 31

Subsalve USA Corp 17

Thompson Marine-CAT 31

Torqeedo 32

Walker Marine Design Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . Sig Boats CV2

ZF Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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“Thanks to the exceptional propulsion selection and strong product support from Karl Senner, the collaboration between Maritime Partners and Karl Senner – now seven years strong – will continue to help us flourish. We look forward to many more years of growth and success.”

“With more than 65 sets of Reintjes gears in service today, our business has continued to operate safely and efficiently with reliable and dependable service from Karl Senner, LLC. With Reintjes and Karl Senner, LLC. as our partners, we are confident that we will have many more years of operating success along America’s Inland waterways.”

- Clark Todd, President, Blessey Marine Services Inc.

Karl Senner, LLC is proud to equip the M/V Kevin Goldstein and sister vessel, each with two REINTJES WAF 665 Reverse Reduction Gearboxes and Electronic Controls

Shipyard: Steiner Construction Company Inc. Owner: Maritime Partners, LLC

Karl Senner, LLC is proud to supply two REINTJES WAF 563 Gearboxes onboard the M/V Daniel Wisner.

Owner: Blessey Marine Services, Inc. Shipyard: Verret Shipyard