On Friday, the 35th International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans came to a close. Each year in my welcoming remarks I hint that the show will be best ever. For the most part, I believe that has been the case, based on attendee and exhibitor numbers. But this year, in addition to those metrics, which were again positive, there were other reasons why I felt that the 2014 WorkBoat Show topped all its predecessors.
First off, last year’s show was held in October, so that meant exhibitors had been waiting for over a year to show off their latest products and services. Thus, there was bound to be lots of new and interesting stuff in the aisles.
This also meant that we had 14 months instead of 12 of boatbuilding coverage to wade through to choose 2014’s 10 Significant Boats. That brings me another reason why this show was also unique. For the first time, we named a Boat of the Year, selected from our 10 Significant Boats. We held an awards breakfast for the boats’ owners, builders and designers before the show opened on Thursday.
The offshore refueling vessel Great Expectations was WorkBoat’s inaugural 2014 Boat of the Year. The 314'×66'×30' DP-2 vessel, built for a joint venture of John W. Stone Oil Distributor and Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) at ECO’s La Ship in Houma, La., can carry up to 1.5 million gals. of fuel, potable water and lubricants. Stone and Chouest collaborated on the design. The Great Expectations is a customized design based on ECO’s VE (very efficient) PSV hull design.
In addition to the Great Expectations, this year’s Significant Boats were made up of pilot boats, tugs, a Z-drive towboat, a passenger vessel, OSVs and a cargo/transport vessel. All 10 of this year’s boats could easily make a claim for Boat of the Year.
Another reason why I felt the show was the best in my 20-plus years of attendance was that we featured three interesting industry-targeted keynote addresses for the first time. Capt. Richard Phillips kicked things off on the opening morning of the show followed by Vigor Shipyards chief Frank Foti and Maritime Administrator Chip Jaenichen the next day.
I truly believe that the 35th edition of the show was our best ever. I hope you felt the same way.
