Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1998)

FERRY BOAT REPORT capable of withstanding thrust loads of the normal marine stan- dards which require a safety factor of four over the maximum rated operating pressure.

Grooved end piping systems have received approval for ship- board and offshore piping from:

U.S. Coast Guard, American

Bureau of Shipping, Lloyd's

Register of Shipping, and

Germanischer Lloyd, among oth- ers. Products are manufactured to

ASTM standards F1476, F1548, and F1155, and Victaulic is an ISO 9001 certified company.

Grooved end piping systems are designed to be easier to install than welding, and are designed to be more reliable than threading or flanging, resulting in a lower total installed cost. "On a typical ship under construction, we have expe- rienced pipe shop cost savings of up to 30 percent in reduced labor,"

Mr. Whyte said. He considers a major advantage of the fittings to • AMFELS VALUE • RELIABLE SERVICE • QUALITY WORK • COST COMPETITIVENESS • AMFELS VALUE • • --

W^-^r' • I

OFFSHORE & PETROLEUM SPECIALISTS

AMFELS Inc., located in the Port of Brownsville,

Texas, has the proven marine and offshore construction and design capabilities to reliably complete any of todays sophisticated upgrade, repair and new construction projects to the rules of ABS, DNV,

USCG, HSE, etc.

AMFELS operates an ASME and API certified fabrication facility for efficiently building process packages for onshore and offshore production applications in addition to

TLP's, SPAR's and other MOPU's (Mobile

Offshore Production Units).

A leader

In Servicing The

Offshore Marine Industry

AMFELS' new 48,000 ton drydock is capable of lifting the largest

Jackup and Semisub- mersible Drilling Units.

Access to AMFELS* modern 130 acre facility is by a 42 foot deep channel, with no height restrictions, from the Gulf of Mexico or the

Intercoastal Waterway.

AMFELS is fully equipped to offer quality service to the marine and offshore industries with large covered fabrication, blasting and machine shop facilities supported by land cranage up to 300 tons, and floating cranes of 700 tons & 150 tons.

Houston Office:

Texas Commerce Bank Building 5177 Richmond Avenue, Suite 1065

Houston, Texas 77056, USA

Phone: 713/840-8811

Fax: 713/840-1198

U.S. Representative

Keppel Marine Agencies Inc.

Main Office:

Port of Brownsville

Highway 48

Brownsville, Texas 78523, USA

Phone: 956/831-8220

Fax: 956/831-6220 • 3I11VA S133WV • SS3N3Allll3dWO} ISO) • XilOM AlllVflO • 3 3IAH3S 318VI13H • 301VA S13JWV •

Circle 211 on Reader Service Card

MV Tacoma be in "ship repair and onboarc modifications. Victaulic fittings require no hot work and can be worked on in situ on the ship; welded joints require gas freeing or removing piping from the ship for modifications or repairs to be carried out."

Circle 41 on Reader Service Card

Blount's New Look In

Catamarans

EXP 299 fast ferry from Blount Industries.

EXP-299, launched in August 1998, is a new 40 ft. (12 m), high- speed experimental catamaran being tested on Narragansett Bay.

Luther H. Blount of Blount

Industries has designed the new

Cat to go faster, cost less, make a low wake and be difficult to sink.

The fast ferry is built on the prin- ciple of lightweight permanent buoyancy and a new process of attaching fiberglass to aluminum.

It is powered by twin Mercurys at a total of 500 hp, and weighs 5,000 lbs without fuel and passengers.

At 40 knots the vessel's wake was minimal and full-speed operation close to marinas has been unevent- ful. The EXP-299 made a trial test run from Providence to Newport in just over 30 minutes.

Circle 156 on Reader Service Card

Halter Launches Fifth

Texas Ferry

Halter Marine Group, Inc. recently launched the Robert H.

Dedman, a 500 passenger/ 70 vehi- cle double-ended ferry for the state of Texas. The new ferry, the fifth

BP 42 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News