Shipbuilding News, November 2015

NASSCO christens first tanker in five-vessel Jones Act order

General Dynamics NASSCO's San Diego shipyard hosted a christening ceremony on Oct. 9 for the first of five Jones Act product carriers for Kinder Morgan Inc. subsidiary American Petroleum Tankers (APT). 

Lone Star State is the first of a five-tanker contract between NASSCO and APT. The agreement covers design and construction of five 50,000-deadweight-ton, LNG-conversion-ready product carriers with a 330,000-barrel cargo capacity. The 610-foot-long tankers are a new "ECO" design, offering improved fuel efficiency and the latest environmental protection features including a ballast water treatment system.

The ships were designed by DSEC, a subsidiary of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) of Busan, South Korea. The design incorporates improved fuel efficiency concepts through several features, including a G-series MAN ME slow-speed main engine and an optimized hull form. The tankers will have dual-fuel-capable auxiliary engines and the ability to accommodate future installation of an LNG fuel system.

While three others are being built, on Oct. 16 NASSCO shipbuilders began construction on the fifth one.

Bollinger delivers 15th fast response cutter

Bollinger Shipyards delivered Joseph Napier, a fast response cutter (FRC), to the U.S. Coast Guard on Oct. 20.

The 154-foot patrol craft Joseph Napier is the 15th vessel in the Coast Guard's Sentinel-class FRC program. To build the FRC, Bollinger used a proven, in-service parent craft design based on the Damen Stan Patrol Boat 4708. It has a flank speed of 28 knots, state-of-the-art command, control, communications and computer technology and a stern launch system for the vessel’s 26-foot cutter boat. The FRC has been described as an operational game-changer by senior Coast Guard officials.

The Coast Guard is scheduled to commission the vessel in Puerto Rico during January 2016.

Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. This vessel is named after Coast Guard hero Joseph Napier. Napier, keeper of St. Joseph Life-Saving Station 6, showed his true heroism and courage as he risked his life and led his crew into gale-force winds to rescue the men of the wrecked schooner D.G. Williams in October 1877. Napier demonstrated his courage during multiple rescues as a career lifesaver of the Great Lakes.

Swiftships awarded U.S. Navy contract for facility in Iraq

Swiftships Shipbuilders LLC, of Morgan City, La., was awarded a $10,976,701 firm-fixed-price delivery order under previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00024-15-G-4209 for one year of services to operate and upgrade the Iraqi navy ship-repair facility. The award was granted on Oct. 23.

This effort encompasses one year of labor and the associated travel, basic life support services and force protection services to operate and support the facility.

Work will be performed at Umm Qasr Naval Base, Iraq, and is expected to be completed October 2016.

Foreign military sales funding in the amount of $10,976,701 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity. 

Great Lakes commissions N.Y. tugs, lays keel for newbuild

Great Lakes Shipyard in Cleveland hosted a double celebration on Oct. 27. One event was the commissioning ceremony for the first of two tugs under construction for the New York Power Authority. The second was the laying of the keel of a tug for a Guatemala export customer.

Joncaire II and its sister vessel will be used to service winter operations at the Niagara Power Plant in Buffalo, N.Y. They will augment and replace aging vessels that are used for the installation, removal and maintenance of the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom and for various associated marine construction projects.

Construction for the first tug began last April. The second tug is scheduled for delivery in late 2017.

The new tugs are specially reinforced with heavy stems and shell reinforcement for operations in seasonal ice. The design of the conventional-drive tugs includes elevated pilothouses for improved visibility when maneuvering and a spacious work deck aft to facilitate ice boom connections.

In 2010, Great Lakes Shipyard built the New York Power Authority's new 80-by-34-foot ice boom operations barge, which incorporates a Terex 80-ton pedestal-mounted lattice boom crane.

The keel-laying was for a new tugboat to be built for Regimen de Pensiones y Jubilaciones del Personal de la Empresa Portuaria Quetzal.

The tugboat is being built under a contract awarded in August. It will be another of the company's HandySize Class 3,400-hp twin-screw tugboats and will be used for harbor towing operations in Puerto Quetzal, a growing commercial cargo, container and cruise port on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.

The HandySize-class tug was designed by Jensen Maritime.

Set for delivery next year, the tug is specifically designed for harbor work and coastal towing. It is 74 feet long with a beam of 30 feet, and a design draft of 11.5 feet. It is to be built to American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) standards and its Cummins QSK-50 main diesel propulsion engines, each rated at 1,700 bhp at 1,600 rpm meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 emission regulations delivering superior fuel economy, durability and reliability.

Army Corps awards repair contract to Great Lakes

Great Lakes Shipyard announced it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Detroit District for the dry-docking and repairs of the floating plant based at the Detroit Field Station.

The shipyard will perform routine dry-docking, maintenance and repairs of the tug Demolen, crane barge Veler and deck scow BC-6576. In addition to dry-docking the vessels, the yard’s work includes underwater hull cleaning and maintenance; inspection of propulsion and steering systems; sea valves maintenance; bearing inspections; other routine cleaning, maintenance and repairs, as well as renewal of four large deck hatches on Veler.

This will be the first time the Detroit District floating plant has been dry-docked using Great Lakes Shipyard’s 700-metric-ton-capacity Marine Travelift.

All three vessels were hauled out on Oct. 26, and work commenced immediately. The vessels are scheduled for redelivery to the USACE in mid-December.

By Professional Mariner Staff