Page 47: of Marine News Magazine (July 2017)

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SPECIAL REPORT: WORKBOAT REPAIR

Grooving the Way:

Back to the Future

Anything but new, the Victaulic method of pipe- joining has been around for a long time. Armed with myriad type approvals from most IACS groups,

Victaulic’s output will no doubt (and soon) form a part of your marine equipment for a long time to come.

By Joseph Keefe he conservative and staid domestic waterfront, sped along was through the use of Victaulic pipe couplings. especially where it intersects boatbuilding and The John W. Brown, one of two surviving fully opera-

T repair, recently set sail for increased ef? ciencies, tional Liberty ships, was launched in Baltimore on Sep- driven in part by emerging technologies, but also through tember 7, 1942. In 1983, Project Liberty Ship acquired improved management and new assembly techniques. It the Brown and, in 1988, moved the vessel to the harbor was in 2013 that Boysie Bollinger’s son, Chris Bollinger, of her birth where it serves as a memorial museum ship. then a member of the Bollinger senior management team, But, Liberty ships were not expected to last even ? ve years; proclaimed, “Boatbuilding is evolving into something never mind 75. The longevity of the Brown can be credited that will more closely resemble manufacturing, as we to many things – the all-volunteer crew that returned it know it in other industries.” Today, Bollinger is a leader to operating condition, for one. Another element includes in robotic shipbuilding, right here at home on the Gulf the vintage ballast lines, joined so many years ago with

Coast. Separately, other similarly positive developments Victaulic grooved couplings. are also underway. For more than 70 years, the lines have remained leak- free. There is no known record of any maintenance being

History Repeats Itself performed on the ballast lines, and the grooved couplings

Today’s need to become more ef? cient, cost-conscious visible today are the original couplings installed in 1942. and to provide higher quality output mirrors a similar situ- This carbon steel piping of the ballast system consists of ation which played out more than 75 years ago. The ad- ? exible malleable iron Victaulic couplings, which at the vent of World War II forced U.S. builders to more quickly time were referred to as standard couplings for grooved produce merchant hulls in quantity, and with good quality. steel pipe. Victaulic Style 77 ? exible grooved couplings are

Eventually, more than 2,170 Liberty Ships and later, 531 the equivalent of these couplings today. Indeed, Victau-

Victory Ships were produced – at the sometimes astound- lic promotional brochures for marine applications can be ing speed of one every 30 days. That process was surely sourced as far back as the 1920’s.

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