Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1991)

Southern Marine (continued from page 22) wheel casinc/dinner boats from the

Steamboat Development Corpora- tion. The contract is an outgrowth of new legislation permitting river- boat gambling in the state of Iowa.

Colette Murray, marketing di- rector for Freeport Shipbuilding &

Repair, said, "We are extremely busy. We have had several inquir- ies about riverboat gambling ves- sels. I am very optimistic about the future."

The Freeport, Florida, yard has four vessels in various stages of construction. Two, a 110-foot pri- vate steel yacht for a Texas owner and a 65-foot paddlewheeler for a

New Jersey owner, are scheduled for delivery this month.

Jacksonville Reopens

The recently reopened Jackson- ville Shipyards, Inc. (JSI) has com- pleted a major dredging project to deepen the berths of its two large floating drydocks of 33,000 and 30,000-ton lifting capacity. Great

Lakes Dredge & Dock Company performed the work. The deepened docking berths will permit JSI to accommodate larger vessels, includ- ing Florida-based cruise ships.

Since resuming operations in Au- gust of last year, the Jacksonville facility has completed a number of repair jobs for major ship operators.

Hvide Shipping's reconstruction of the 46,300-dwt chemical carrier

M/V Seabulk America was under- taken by two Southern yards, Nor- folk Shipbuilding & Drydock Com- pany (NORSHIPCO), Norfolk, Va„ and North Florida Shipyards,

Jacksonville, Fla. The project in- volved the fitting of a forebody from a barge onto a wrecked tanker.

Other Southern yards, particu- larly Bender Shipbuilding & Repair in Mobile, Ala., and Eastern Ship- yards, Panama City, Fla., have also been busy as of late with a number of extensive conversion and repair projects in the commercial fishing, passenger, and Navy sectors. East- ern Shipyards is constructing two molten sulfur tankers for the U.S.- flag fleet and recently completed a major conversion of a 308-foot Circle

Line dinner boat, the nation's larg- est. Bender has been extremely active in the commercial fishing vessel conversion market, deliver- ing several vessels to Arctic Alaska

Fisheries, among them the 190-foot fish tender Arctic V.

In neighboring Mississippi,

Homeport Marine Services, located at Moss Point, recently signed a $3- million contract to build a 152-foot all-steel crabber for the North Pa- cific and Alaska commercial crab fisheries. The firm also launched a 195-foot, 78,000-cubic-foot-capacity fish tender for AASC Shipping, Inc., a subsidiary of Arctic Alaska Fish- eries, Inc.

The Navy has been a steady sup- plier of new construction work to builders Newport News Shipbuild- ing, Newport News, Va., Ingalls

Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and Textron Marine Systems and

Avondale Industries, Inc., both of

New Orleans. Newport News Ship- building is involved in the Navy's aircraft carrier and attack subma- rine programs, Avondale, the fleet oiler, dock landing ship, minehun- ter and deep ocean survey ship pro- grams, Ingalls, the cruiser, destroyer and amphibious assault ship proj- ects, and Textron Marine delivers air cushion landing craft.

On the commercial side, Avon- dale's Boat Division, Westwego, La., and Harvey Quick Repair, located at Harvey, La., have been the bene- ficiaries of inland waterways work.

Late last year, the Boat Division secured separate contracts to build three Viking Class towboats for

National Marine and a 3,900-hp tugboat for E.N. Bisso & Son.

Suppliers Benefit As Well

With the rise in construction ac- tivity, the fortunes of equipment suppliers to the yards improved as well. Karl Senner, Inc., for example, supplied two Reintjes model WAV 4450 reverse reduction gears, 4.75:1 ratio, with internal hydraulically actuated propeller shaft brake for the Caterpillar-powered towboats under construction at Avondale.

Senner also supplied Rexroth (WABCO) pneumatic remote con- trols for each vessel.

Another Southern equipment sup- plier, Marine Gears, Inc., benefited from the resurgence in construction and repowering activity. "There has been a pick-up in activ- ity," said Kyle Haley, vice presi- dent and general manager of the

Greenville, Miss., company. "Nine- teen-ninety was a good year, but po- tentially, 1991 can be absolutely tremendous," stated Mr. Haley. "We have as many bookings in January 1991 as we had in all of 1990."

Marine Gears, Inc. was involved in supplying a number of new con- struction and repowering projects.

The firm supplied six Haley RV2835 reverse/reduction gears for 4:1 ra- tios for three EMD-powered twin- screw towing tugs constructed for

Bay-Houston Towing Co., Houston,

Texas, by Houma-based builder

Main Iron Works. Marine Gears also supplied Haley auxiliary drive units which power deck-mounted cap- stans, towing winches, etc. Marine

Gears also supplied equipment for another Main Iron Works project, (continued)

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A

Gulf Craft, Inc. 3904 Highway 1 82 • Patterson, LA 70392

Phone (504) 395-5254 • FAX (504) 395-3657

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