Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2006)

August 2006 9

Vancouver Shipyards to

Build New Ship

BC Ferries signed a $41m contract with Vancouver Shipyards, a

Washington Marine Group company, to build a new 125-car intermediate size ferry. Construction on the 328 ft. (100 m) vessel will begin later this year and the ship is expected to enter service by the summer of 2008. The new interme- diate vessel will allow for the retirement of the 46-year-old Queen of

Tsawwassen. The new ship will initially sail on the Earls Cove - Saltery Bay route on the Sunshine Coast.

VT Halter Marine

Launches Ferry

VT Halter Marine launched the Island

Home, a 255-ft. double-ended ferry built for The Woods Hole, Martha's

Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamship

Authority (SSA), on July 21. The Island

Home will replace the Islander, a 56- year old ferry currently serving the

Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven route.

The Island Home was designed by

Elliott Bay Design Group of Seattle and is capable of carrying up to 1,200 pas- sengers and crew. The ferry will also carry 76 vehicles (cars and semi-trail- ers) and includes hydraulic lift decks for 16 cars. Displacing nearly 1,950 tons when fully loaded and powered by two direct drive EMD diesel engines deliv- ering 6,000 hp, it has a top speed of 16 knots.

Fiberglass Catamaran

From China

Guanzhou Min Hua Yacht

Manufacture Ltd. delivered the fourth in a series of high speed catamaran passen- ger vessels to Elison, an operator in the far south of Guangdong province. The catamaran will service the two islands of Shangchuan Dao and Xiachuan Dao, which are busy terminals on an other- wise empty stretch of coastline. The islands lie about 10 miles off shore and are popular holiday destinations for domestic tourists. At 23.8 x 6 x 2.1 m, the catamarans are among the larger vessels on the run to the islands. They carry 130 passengers in a single main deck cabin with a pilothouse on the upper deck.

Propulsion power is a pair of 550 hp

Cummins KTA19 M2 engines turning three-blade propellers through 2.5:1 reduction Hanzhou J400 gear boxes.

This combination gives the boat a 24- knot speed at sea.

MOL Promotes Birnbaum

MOL (Asia) Ltd. promoted Fred

Birnbaum to Director/General Manager of Marketing for Central China. In addition to having responsibility for all marketing and customer service, he will lead and manage regional business development for the Liner Division as

MOL (China) begins a three-year expansion program. Birnbaum is a grad- uate of SUNY Buffalo with a B.A. in

Liberal Arts concentrated in Chinese language and Asian studies. David

Prado joins MOL as the General

Manager of Transpacific Trade

Management in Hong Kong. He suc- ceeds Junya Nakamura who is now the

Group Leader of MOL's Ports and

Terminal Group in Tokyo. Prado holds an MBA in International Business from

Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Tidewater Promotes Platt

Tidewater Inc. promoted Jeffrey M.

Platt, from senior vice president of the company to the position of executive vice president. Platt will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day marine operations of the company, both domes- tically and internationally. Platt is a 1979 graduate of the University of

Pittsburgh with a degree in Electrical

Engineering. He joined Tidewater in 1996 as general manager of its business activities in Brazil.

Grace Retires from

NASSCO

General

Dynamics NASS-

CO announced the retirement of

Janice S. Grace, its senior vice president of oper- ations, on June 30.

Grace, 55, had served as the ship- yard's second-ranking executive since

February 2004. She was responsible for all production, engineering, materials, master planning and information sys- tems activities at the shipyard. A gradu-

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News

Evergreen Chairman Wins Award

Dr. Chang Yung-Fa, Group Chairman of the Evergreen Group, has been appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen

Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to shipping and British economic inter- ests. "I am both humbled and deeply honored. I am happy to say that shipping has not only been my profession, but also my life's passion. To be rewarded for one's passion is truly a privilege," Dr. Chang said. "On a more personal note, I would like to thank the maritime industry as a whole. I can only hope that my con- tribution to shipping has been as great as shipping's contribution to my life. The maritime industry has provided me with many full and happy years and shaped the man I am today. In the wise words of the English poet and novelist John

Ruskin: 'The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.’” Hatsu Marine, established as a British shipping company in 2002, has developed into one of the largest shipowning entities in the U.K. and was this year awarded the coveted Queen's Award for Enterprise: International

Trade. At present, the company operates 11 containerships under the Red Ensign, including four 7,024TEU S-type vessels, which incorporate the latest in environ- mentally sound features and are among the largest container vessels currently ply- ing the world's oceans.

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