Page 102: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1998)

SHIP REPAIR & CONVERSION

SHIP CONVERSION FOCUS

One Plus One Equals One

New vessel is created from two re-commissioned at Port Weller

The newly created Upper Lakes

Group vessel M.V. Canadian

Transfer was re-commissioned in a ceremony last month at Port Weller

Dry Docks. The project involved combining components of two exist- ing ships to create a new one, a complex engineering job completed at Port Weller Dry Docks during the past four months. "We are proud that the new ves- sel, which is now equipped with updated unloading gear, deck equipment and electronics, will be 40 percent faster, more maneuver- able, and will use less fuel to oper- ate," said Marcel Rivard, President and CEO of Upper Lakes Group Canadian Transfer's Main Dimensions

Inc Length, O.D 650.5 ft. (198.3 m)

Canadian Transfer is 651 ft. o?!!'!!!^"1! (198.3 m) long and 60 ft. (18.3 m) wide, with an unloading capacity of ^ qqq ^ 4,000 tons per hour. Canadian Cargo copacify .............. J6,000 tons Transfer will join the Seaway Self Unloading capacity 4,000 tons/hour

Unloaders fleet, a partnership of

Upper Lakes Group Inc., Toronto, and Algoma Central Marine, St. Catharines, Ont.

Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. (CSE) is the parent com- pany of Port Weller Dry Docks. CSE is one of Canada's premier ship- building and repair companies, with operating divisions at Port Weller,

Canal Marine and CSE Marine Services, St. Catharines; Pascol

Engineering, Thunder Bay, Ont.; and, Lansdowne Technologies Inc. in

Ottawa. M. V. Canadian Transfer was re-constructed at Port Weller Dry

Docks, St. Catharines, Ont. from portions of the M.V. Hamilton Transfer, and the M.V. Canadian Explorer, which were two Upper Lakes Group ships. The engine room portion of the M.V. Canadian Explorer, a 730- ft. (222-m) straight deck bulk carrier was joined to the M.V. Hamilton

Transfer, a 620-ft. (188.9-m) self-unloading vessel. The cargo hold wheelhouse, and self-loading system of the Hamilton Transfer were retained, and a new, 24-ft. section was built to join the two ships.

Upper Lakes Group Inc., Toronto, owns and operates one of Canada's largest fleets on the Great Lakes. With the addition of the Canadian

Transfer, the number of self-unloading vessels in the Upper Lakes fleet increases to eight, with an additional 13 bulk carriers

Port Weller Dry Docks is the only Canadian shipyard on the Great

Lakes, located above Lock One on the Fourth Welland Canal connecting

Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The yard is, in 1998, completing a $5 mil- lion technology investment. It is equipped to build or convert vessels while retaining the capability of the full-service repair facility. Its dry docks are unique because they flood and empty by gravity rather than by the traditional method of pumping water. The yard itself consists of two parts, a deep dock for maximum-size

Seaway vessels with a water depth of 26 ft. and a shelf with a water depth of 14 ft.

The 260,995 dwt VLCC Mitsumine, owned by International Energy Transport, undergoing alongside work at MSE.

Blohm + Voss (B+V) was awarded a seven-ship block-booking order from Copenhagen's A.P Moller. All seven ships are part of the owners 60,639-dwt M-Class containership fleet, and include Marchen Maersk,

Marit Maersk, Mathilde Maersk,

Mayview Maersk, the Madison

Maersk, Maren Maersk and

Margarethe Maersk. All will under- go drydocking and general repairs.

Also part of the A.P Moller fleet, the 84,900-dwt DIS-registered con- tainership Regina Maersk is also expected to arrive at the yard in the near future.

Due to arrive during mid-

August was OMI Corp.'s 141,720- dwt Liberian tanker Tanana. The ship is to undergo conversion to a shuttle tanker at Spain's Astilleros de Cadiz, and the contract is expected to be completed by

October. With regards to conver- sion work, the yard, which is part of the Astilleros Espanoles Group, is currently carrying out this type of work onboard Foldkoon's 267,577 dwt Panamanian VLCC P- 47. Pasir Gudang's Malaysia

Shipyard & Engineering (MSE), has completed repairs onboard the 244,651 dwt Panamanian-regis- tered VLCC Diamond City, which is the first in a block-booking from

Japan's Navix Corp., involving a total of nine tankers. The next ves- sel due is the 259,999 dwt

Diamond Falcon, expected to be in the yard during July — all the

Navix ships due in MSE are char- tered to Japan's Mitsubishi Oil. It is expected that the block-booking will be completed early next year.

MSE is also in the process of converting Mowinckles' 94,236 dwt (1984-built) conventional tanker

Hitra to a floating production, stor- age and offloading (FPSO) unit for use off the Malaysian coast by

Petronas. The contract was placed with MSE by a joint venture com- pany between Malaysia's Trenergy and Norway's Statoil. The ship arrived in the yard during the lat- (Continued on page 96)

Hitachi Zosen completes the FPSO conversion of Rang Dong I (ex Proster). 82 Maritime Reporter/Engineerine No»-