Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2006)

"We build two big crew boats per year," explains Kerry

Neuville of Neuville Boat Works in New Iberia

Louisiana. This year one of the owners who will take delivery of a Neuville boat is Capt. Elliot Cundieff. It will be the twelfth in his fleet of crew boats that operate out of Freeport Texas along with another four boats that are party fishing boats. The interesting combination of vessels came about when Capt. Elliot, who had been working as an engineer in Savannah Georgia, returned home to Texas and got a job running a party boat out of

Freeport in 1970. In 1976 he bought the business with four boats, two of which were converted crew boats.

From operating party fishing boats that were former crew boats, it was a short step into buying his first dedi- cated crew boat in 1979. Wisely he kept the party fishing boat part of the business going so that when the big downturn came in the oil industry and interest rates sky- rocketed in 1983, "We increased our fleet when others were downsizing," he recalled, "But we had the party boats to prop up the rent."

Over the years he has bought and sold boats as well as adding new boats to upgrade both the party boat and crew boat fleets. This included adding new crew boats in 1996 and 2000 and then a new party boat in 2005. "We are very pro technology," he says of Miss Claire, the current build project — a 155 x 28-ft., crew boat to be delivered at the end of June. Capt. Elliot has added some more nice touches like the satellite TV and 42-in. plasma screen DVD monitors in the passenger area and the only slightly smaller screens with players in each of the crew's bunkrooms. Not all the technology is for enter- tainment. The boat is fitted with sophisticated CSP elec- tronic controls and monitoring systems.

Nor are all of the details on the boat so high tech. Some are just good design sense. Over the years the Neuville folks have learned countless details from customer feed back. An example of this are the beams affixed to the overhead in the engine room from which to suspend the engine exhausts so as to isolate them from the flexing of the main deck beams when cargos are loaded.

Four EPA tier 1 compliant KTA38 M2 engines provide power for the vessel. Each engine produces 1350 hp at 1900 rpm power for the new vessel for a total of 5400 hp.

Tankage is provided for 18,444 gallons for fuel, 33,662 gallons of rig water and 1039 gallons of potable water.

Maximum deck cargo will be about 185 long tons on the 22.13 x 93.25-ft, after deck.

The countless details that contribute to the vessel's over all reliability and her passengers comfort will assure that the company crews will welcome an opportunity to work this handsome boat.

July, 2006 • MarineNews 9

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Circle 210 on Reader Service Card

Neuville Boat Works Delivers for Texas Customer

Capt. Elliott with his new boat.

Miss Claire's props.

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