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August 2011www.marinelink.com 39platform. Commercial work continues to form a large portion of Vigor?s work across the Northwest, in its drydock andberths. Workers in Tacoma are splitting and ?stretching? commercial fishing ves- sels to extend capacity and increase fuel efficiency. In Seattle, the company re- cently started environmental and safety upgrades for Shell Oil?s arctic drilling platform, Kulluk. VIGOR?s solid barge-building opera- tions continue to grow. US Barge itself was christened recently with a new name, US Fab, reflecting the division?s expan- sion into offshore alternative energy plat- forms as well as land-based fabrication. ?Care of your customers in a goodeconomy,? advised Travis Short, Presi- dent of Horizon Shipbuilding, Inc., ?asexcellent customer relations in a good economy can help you survive in a down economy.? More than sound advice, as it seems, as Horizon has remained busy during the downturn of the previous few years and positioned itself for new op- portunities as the economy improves. Horizon currently has a backlog that in-cludes government work (a pair of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers towboats) and 140-ft. towboats for a commercial cus- tomer. ?Our strategic alliance with Florida Marine Transporters (FMT) will continue to be the base of our new con- struction business,? said John Carnley, Project Manager for the FMT 140-ft.towboats. While customer service is the entry, modern facilities help a boatbuilder in the long-run and Horizon has em-barked on a large scale shipyard facility improvement program. ?At some point Horizon intends to be a full service ma-rine facility that is able to provide any service a ship operator/owner may re- quire from docking and resupply to serv-icing equipment to repairs to new builds,? said Short. Current facility improve- ments include new bulkheads with con- crete caps and aprons, pier facilities, electrical power upgrades, potable water and bulk welding gas line installation and production and administration building upgrades.St. Johns Ship Building is one of thebest kept boatbuilding secrets in the U.S., located along the historic St. Johns River 60 miles south of Jacksonville, FL. Here is where a full service shipyard emerged when in 2006 Steven Ganoe and business ?These discoveries show that if theylet us drill, we can do it safely andfind oil and gas,? said Donald?Boysie? Bollinger, Bollinger Ship- yards. (Continued on page 56)MR Aug. 11 # 5 (34-41):MR Template 8/8/2011 11:42 AM Page 39