Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2011)

May 2011 www.marinelink.com 47 we make a mistake twice, we review it because we know that we are doing something wrong.”

Dreyfus is in fact a fan of taking advice from the workers on the floor. “They are teaching us; they’re the ones building the boats … It’s the idiots who don’t listen to the floor.”

Overall, though, he is an advocate of keeping the business a manageable size, concentrating on building and maintain- ing a strong business for the long haul, ensuring his core team remains intact. “My father used to say ‘pigs get fat and the hogs get slaughtered,’” said Dreyfus. “We just want to keep a nice steady in- come, to provide a good product and to take care of our team.”

BUILDING STRONG BOATS

Building exclusively for military mar- kets obviously takes a great deal of pa- tience and planning, but Dreyfus believes the process has helped to optimize the company’s process and products. “In the military market, when a boat breaks people die,” Dreyfus summa- rized succinctly. “If you don’t under- stand that and build to that level, then shame on you.” Today the company builds a number of models for the U.S.

Navy Special Ops Command, as well as for a number of foreign militaries, in- cluding in Singapore, Egypt and Bahrain.

USMI recently delivered five patrol boats (with 10 more on order) for

Kuwait, a contract in partnership with

Trinity Yachts which Dreyfus described as “27m MK V’s on steroids, doing 48 knots in trials and outfitted with a with a remote control gun up front and air con- ditioning for Middle East.”

Dreyfus admits that recent political up- heaval in the Middle East has created a “wait and see situation” in the region, the company continues for fulfill contracts and build boats for the area. “It’s all very dynamic right now, but we are still build- ing boats and concentrating on building our business overall.” A few years ago it delivered a pair of two 82-ft. MKV Spe- cial Operations Craft in a contract with the Naval Sea Systems Command, (NAVSEA). The design is owned jointly by USMI and VT Halter and is part of an original contract awarded in 1990's for

USSOCOM; the pair send to the Bahrain

Navy through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Built of aluminum, the

MKV SOC has seating for five crew and up to 16 passengers, all in shock mitigat- ing seats. Powered by twin MTU 12V396TE94 driving Rolls Royce 50SII waterjets, the boat’s cruising speed is 25- 35 knots with a top speed of more than 45 knots. The boat will carry tactical radio, navigation, communications and ship control in an integrated console.

There is a stern ramp for rapid deploy- ment and recovery of AVON F470 boats.

The MKV SOC has a MK38 25mm weapon system aft with four additional gun stations that can accommodate

M2HB .50 Cal or M60/M240 machine guns. Today USMI designs and builds primarily three boats: the MK V for Spe- cial Ops Command, Bahrain, the Sul- tanate of Oman, and the Kuwait Navy; a

Navel Special Warfare (NSW) RIB; and a

Special Operations Craft Riverine.