Compiled and edited by Bruce Buls, Technical Editor

Island Boats cracks the crewboat market with two contracts

Island Boats, an aluminum boatbuilder in Jeanerette, La., has landed a pair of construction contracts that represent its first foray into the crewboat market.
The first contract is for two 175'5"x32'x13' crewboats (the Bourbon Libeccio and Swordfish) for Rigdon Marine, Houston. The second contract is with Southern States Offshore, also of Houston, for a pair of 168-footers. 

Island Boats’ meal ticket for the past 11 years has been passenger vessels and small workboats, but the company wanted to try its hand in the offshore crewboat market.
“The passenger vessel market is a little soft right now,” said Ron Bacon, the yard’s operations manager. “We’re really focused on making sure we get into this [crewboat] market. We’re building our first waterjet boat and first big crewboat all at the same time.”
The two Rigdon vessels are being built from a design by Midship Marine in Harvey, La. “Their design works well, and they’ve been tremendous to work with,” said Bacon.

Tankage will include 34,500 gals. of fuel; 26,500 gals. rig water; 2,000 gals. potable water; 250 gals. clean lube oil; and 250 gals. dirty lube oil. The vessels will also be capable of carrying 220 LT of freight on 103'x26' rear cargo decks.

Main propulsion will come from four Cummins KTA50 M2 diesel engines, producing 1,800 hp at 1,900 rpm each. The mains will connect to four HamiltonJet 811 waterjets through Reintjes WVS 730 marine gears with 2.54:1 reduction ratios. The combination will produce a running speed of 30 knots with 200 LT of displacement and 21 knots with 420 LT.

Enhanced maneuverability will be assisted by a Thrustmaster 30TT 200AL 30"-dia. bowthruster powered by a Cummins CTA8.3, 200-hp diesel engine.
Steering systems and controls will come from HamiltonJet.

Ship’s service power will be generated by two Cummins 6CTA8.3D gensets, each capable of 148 kw.

There will be accommodations for eight crew and 80 passengers.

The Bourbon Libeccio will be delivered in June and carry ABS HSVR classification, Maltese Cross A1, AMS, DP-1. The Swordfish is scheduled for a September delivery and will carry ABS loadline classification and USCG Subchapter T certification.

The 168'x32'x12'6" Southern States crewboats, the Southern Belle and the Southern Star, will have tankage for 24,000 gals. of fuel and 34,000 gals. rig water. The rear cargo decks will measure 103'6"x26'6" and will be able to haul up to 275 LT of freight.

Designed by Sterling Marine Inc., Gulf Breeze, Fla., the boats will be powered by four Cummins QSK50 diesel engines, each rated at 1,800 hp at 1,900 rpm. The mains connect to 4-bladed, 50"x50" Michigan Dynaquad nibral wheels through Twin Disc MGX-6848 marine gears with 2.93:1 reduction ratios. The boats’ running speed will be 27 knots, light, and 25 knots with 100 tons of deck cargo.

Each boat will also have two 100-hp thrusters from Thrustmaster driven off two of the main engines.

Beier Radio will provide the steering system, and Twin Disc will take care of the control systems using its EC300 models.

There will be accommodations for a crew of four and 70 passengers.

The Southern Belle will be delivered in January 2009 and the Southern Star will follow six months later.

Both crewboats will be U.S. Coast Guard certified, Subchapter T, ABS loadline.

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USMI delivers high-speed, composite patrol boat 

The contract speed was 45 knots, but after hitting 53 knots during sea trials, the 90' composite patrol boat for the Royal Oman Police Coast Guard showed that the latest boat from United States Marine Inc., Gulfport, Miss., shouldn’t have any problem dealing with drug smugglers and terrorists in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz.

Due to be shipped to Oman April 1, the 90'x18'x6' patrol boat is an “enhanced version of USMI’s 82' Mark V,” said Barry Dreyfus, president of USMI. It’s officially tagged the MKV-PB(C).

“Enhanced” means that 8' was added to the 82-foot design and the boat was configured for a full set of accommodations. This includes three staterooms for the commanding officer, executive officer and crew chief, and eight bunks for the rest of the crew. The Mark V doesn’t have anything like that, Dreyfus notes.

There is also a galley with stove, refrigerator, freezer and microwave, along with satellite TV and DVD.

In the engine room, a pair of 2,735-hp MTU diesels provides the main propulsion. Each one is hooked up to a Rolls-Royce 56S2 waterjet.

Topsides, the major deck equipment consists of a 50-caliber machine gun forward and a pair of 7.62mm machine guns behind the fly bridge. Dreyfus says both the fly bridge and the pilothouse are “ballisticly protected up to a certain caliber,” though he would not disclose how much.

Even though the boat’s design is based on the Mark V, which often makes long, high-speed runs to drop off special forces combat teams, the 90-footer is closer to the generally accepted idea of a patrol boat. After talking with the Oman captain of the boat, Dreyfus said, “90 percent of the time, they will not be going fast. But if they need speed, they will have it.”

As opposed to the aluminum Mark V, the boat for Oman is composite construction with Kevlar, E-glass and Corecell for a core material. Dreyfus, noting that Maine’s Hodgdon Yachts recently completed a composite boat as a possible replacement for the Mark V, said, “We want to make sure people don’t get confused and think they are the only ones that can build a composite Mark V.”

The Oman Coast Guard likes the boat enough that USMI is currently building two more 90-footers and there is talk about a 12-boat fleet, Dreyfus said. Discussions are also taking place with other nations about different composite and aluminum boats. “Hopefully we can announce this year a large contract,” he added.

Dreyfus said that his late father Tom, USMI’s founder who died in May, designed the 90' patrol boat as well as the Mark V.

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Marine Industrial Fabrication delivers 175-class liftboat

Marine Industrial Fabrication, New Iberia, La., recently delivered the Superior Liberty, a 175-class liftboat, to Superior Energy Services, Harvey, La.

The boat’s actual dimensions are 103'x70'. The 175 classification is derived from the length of the vessel’s three legs.

The workboat features 4,200 sq. ft. of total deck area, 2,850 sq. ft. of open deck area, and 579,000 lbs. variable deck load.

The Superior Liberty can work in water depths up to 128' (with a 25' air gap). Maximum separation from pad to deck is 161' and the minimum working water depth is 9'.

“We bought the two hulls (a second boat will be out in June) because we knew we would be able to incorporate our own construction needs and delivery system for our services offshore in them,” said Ken Blanchard, Superior’s CEO. “By buying the hulls, instead of starting from scratch, we cut some time off the delivery schedule.”

The Superior Liberty features two deck-mounted cranes — a Ram 100-ton on the port side and an EBI 26-ton on the starboard side. The 100-ton fixed boom crane has a load rating of 200,000 lbs. and is normally seen on larger liftboats.

The EBI crane is telescoping, with a boom length of between 40' and 70', and has a load rating of 52,000 lbs. “We needed the crane capacities and deck capacities to support our offshore services — what our clients needed,” said Blanchard. “We want these boats to be able to deliver as many of our services as possible.”

Tankage includes 8,547 gals. of fuel; 13,625 gals. potable water; and 160 gals. lube oil.
Twin Caterpillar 3412 diesel engines, producing 873 hp each, provide the Superior Liberty’s main propulsion. The vessel has a running speed of six knots.

Ship’s service power comes from two Isuzu gensets, sparking 99 kw of electrical power each.

“We do spend quite a bit of time with our clients,” said Blanchard. “We want to give them as many options as we can. It’s a question of our clients looking for the best available services.”

There are accommodations for eight crew, 22 contractors, and one VIP.
The new liftboat is USCG-certified Subchapter L, Lloyd’s loadline, zero discharge capable, SOLAS ready.

“We’re optimistic about what’s going to happen in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Blanchard, “but this boat is SOLAS ready. We’re ready to move into international waters if it comes to that.”

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Van Isle Barge puts repowered Tug-Barge into service

After completing extensive sea trials off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia, Van Isle Barge Services Ltd. (VIBS) has added a second articulated tug-barge combination to its daily Vancouver Island route. Since early February, the two-vessel combo (the Sealink Pusher tug and Van Isle Link barge) has been completing round trips from VIBS’s Fraser River port to Nanaimo on the east side of the island. The ATB is powered by two new, fuel-efficient, V228 medium-speed diesel engines from GE Marine, Erie, Pa. One new engine propels the tug, the other powers the barge.

The former 110' Navy tug was built in 1972. Bethlehem Steel constructed the barge in San Francisco in 1968. The two engines were installed over a 10-month period in 2007. Marc McAllister of McAllister Marine Survey and Design oversaw the engine conversion aboard the 504'x76' barge, for which they selected the GE 8-cylinder V228 diesel engine rated at 1,750 hp at 900 rpm. “For the barge, the installation was fairly straightforward as we had lots of room in her engine room,” McAllister said.

Replacing the tug’s Fairbanks Morse “rock crusher” engine was much more difficult. Fitting the GE 12-cylinder V228 diesel (rated at 2,500 hp at 1,050 rpm) into the tight engine room was like solving a gigantic puzzle. “We joked that it was like sticking four pounds of worms into a three-pound can,” said McAllister. Auxiliary work included installing a raised wheelhouse and reinforcing the tug with a transverse, steel I-beam. Moreover, although the engines meet U.S. Tier II emissions standards, they were also required to comply with safety standards and other regulations set by Transport Canada.
The two electronic fuel-injection, medium-speed diesel engines are the first from GE Marine on Canada’s Pacific Coast.

“Reliability is crucial for us. We run our ATBs 363 days a year. Truckers count on us to be on time to the minute. And the engines can run 40,000 hours before requiring an overhaul,” said Doug Jesson, VIBS’s business development manager.

“The projected fuel economy was also a real attraction, as was the lower lube oil consumption,” added McAllister.

It seems to be working. During the first weeks of service, the ATB reached its objective of burning about 20-25 percent less fuel than the other unit making the same runs. This number may increase more after a GE engineer visits the ATB to fine-tune the engines. 
VIBS’s intermodal service moves roll-on, roll-off cargoes across the Strait of Georgia’s 48 nautical miles. The barges carry semi-trailers, cars, off-road industrial equipment and other self-propelled vehicles.

The tug and barge are connected with Westec 40100-00 tug/barge clamps with solid-forged shafts and swivel heads.

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Boatbuilding Bitts

Foss Maritime, Seattle, has leased the first of two new Z-drive tugs built at J.M. Martinac Shipbuilders, Tacoma, Wash., for Signet Maritime Corp., Houston. Foss will also lease the sister vessel when it’s completed in May. The first 98’x40’x17’5” tug was to have been named Signet America, but Foss is calling the boat America. Designed by Robert Allan Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, the tugs are each powered by a pair MTU 16V-4000 diesel engines rated 3,305 hp at 2,000 rpm that drive Niigata model ZP-41 Z-drives through a hollow, in-line shafting system. This combination delivers a bollard pull of about 80 tons ahead, 75 tons astern, and a free running speed in excess of 12 knots. The main hawser winch is a DEPCF-52S, single-drum, electric winch from Markey Machinery, Seattle. Electrical power is provided by a pair of Northern Lights gensets, each rated 99 kw.
        
In February, Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla., launched the Galveston, the first of three 150’x46’x27’ oceangoing ATB tugs for U.S. Shipping Partners, Edison, N.J. The Galveston and its sisters were designed and engineered by Guarino & Cox, Covington, La. The new tug is powered by a pair of 6,000-hp Wärtsilä 9L32 main engines that can burn either heavy fuel oil or #2 marine diesel. The Galveston will push a 160,000-bbl. tank barge being built at Manitowoc Marine Group in Marinette, Wis.
           
SeaArk Marine, Monticello, Ark., recently completed a shallow-draft 53’x16’ bow-loading transport boat for the Gulf Islands National Seashore, headquartered in Ocean Springs, Miss. Powered by a pair of 375-hp John Deere 6081A main engines, the Captain George operates at a service speed of 22 knots and carries up to 22,000 lbs. of cargo. The climate-controlled pilothouse features a center helm station, seating for up to seven, and an enclosed head. A 10-kw Northern Lights genset provides electric power for the bow ramp and other needs.

Bollinger Algiers (La.) has completed the conversion of Crescent Towing’s Admiral Jackson from a single-engine tug to a twin-engine 4,200-hp docking/assist tug. This is the fifth of eight Crescent 105-foot tugs to undergo the same major conversion at Bollinger’s Algiers facility. The old engine was replaced with two GE Marine 8-cylinder V228 engines coupled to Reintjes 4:1 reduction gears, driving 85” Bollinger stainless steel propellers in 86” type 37 Kort nozzles with stainless steel inner rings. The new power package is designed to generate over 100,000 lbs. of bollard pull. Bollinger also reconstructed the wheelhouse with improved window placement and low profile stacks for maximum visibility and installed a new electronics package. New fendering was installed for maximum protection during docking maneuvers, and new galley and living area furnishings focused on crew comfort, with new air conditioning and heating systems.

Pascagoula, Miss.-based VT Halter Marine has contracted to build Galliano, La., offshore operator L&M Botruc a pair of DP-2 platform supply vessels. The OSVs will measure 230’x56’x18’ and be delivered in 2010. The contract value is between $45 million and $55 million.

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