Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2011)

EDITOR?S NOTEIhave read and written many times regarding both the conservative nature of the marine in- dustry and the dearth of technical talent, specifically the lack of new blood in the broad areas of engineering and science in the United States. While the latter is true in a pure statistical vacuum, there have been several developments in just the past few months which prove an innovative spirit and technical expertise is alive and well. Last month in New York the X-Prize Foundation held a ceremony to award the top three prizes in its $1.4m ?Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge.? To be quite honest, before receiving the invi- tation, I was none too familiar with either the X-Prize Foundation or Wendy Schmidt, and I was leaning toward skipping the ceremony in lieu of shoveling out from under my heavy work load. I?m happy that I went. The $1.4m ?Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge? was a direct result of the Deepwater Horizon blowout and resultant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The X-Prize Foundation is well versed in running high-profile contests, some offering up to $10m in prize money. In this contest it was Wendy Schmidt who stepped to the plate to fully fund the contest which bore her foundation?s name. From an initial field of hundreds, 10 teams from around the globe made the final cut to de- velop and deliver a faster, more efficient means to remove oil from water. The 10 finalist teams ? each of which travelled to New York for the awards ceremony ? then had to demonstrate their cleanup systems individually during field testing over a 10-week period in the summer of 2011. Ohmsett ? the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility ? in Leonardo, NJ, which is the largest outdoor saltwater wave/tow facility in North America, served as the testing ground. While the full story and results are found starting on page 54, the performance from the winning team ? Elastec/American Marine from Illinois ? was startling, as this innovative company tapped its talented team to re-engineer its existing system to nearly triple the amount of oil that can be removed from water efficiently, to 4,670 gpm. This is but one story in this edition, our ?Workboat? Annual, which demonstrates the innovative spirit that you live every day. The maritime industry is faced with a number of real and serious chal- lenges going forward, as increasing amounts of legislation, environmental concern and technical so- phistication demand that companies take a serious look at their assets and operating procedures to ensure that they are well outfitted for the long run. A prime example of a company that has, and con- tinues to innovate is the West Coast icon Foss Maritime. Last month Raina Clark spent some time with Foss CEO Gary Faber to discuss how his company?s investment nearly three years ago in hy- brid tug technology has paid off. In the story, starting on page 46, you will read of the trials and tribulations of bringing to bear new technology on the waterfront, but as Faber succinctly summa- rized: ?We believe the companies best positioned to compete for work will be those with the best environmental safety records.? Gregory R. Trauthwein, Editor & Associate Publisher [email protected] For Technical Talent? Look No Further!MR Nov.11 # 1 (1-9):MR Template 11/7/2011 10:46 AM Page 8