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12Maritime Reporter & Engineering News NEWSVESSELSsubcontractor was Coastwide Electric, Inc.? in Amelia, La. Badeaux noted "we build offshore vessels for Tidewater only. We can build brown water boats for any- one for inland waterways--such as tow- boats that push barges up and down the Mississippi River." Quality Shipyards, wholly owned by Tidewater, provides new construction, conversion and repair services. Its con- struction shipyard and repair yard are lo- cated on the Gulf of Mexico's Intracoastal Waterway at mile marker 57 near Houma. In addition to building and re- pairing oilfield vessels, the shipyard de- signs and builds river towboats, barges and other vessels using the latest com- puter-aided design or CAD equipment. The company has produced more than 274 boats in the last 40 years or so. The repair area at Quality Shipyards has four floating dry docks, with a lifting capac-ity of up to 4,200 tons. The yard can re- pair marine vessels with up to 15,000 horsepower, and contains a machine shop and a fabrication shop with blasting and coating capabilities. The repair facility specializes in vessel conversion and stretching. "Tidewater is currently building boats in Houma, in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and in China and other countries,"Badeaux said. The company's construc- tion projects include PSVs, anchor-han- dling vessels, crewboats and tugs. In Houma, Quality Shipyards is building a MMC 879 platform supply vessel that's 260.5 feet long, with a 55 feet beam anda 24 feet hull. MMC is a European shipdesign firm located in Poland. Tidewater, based in New Orleans and Houston, owns 354 vessels and operates one of the world's largest fleets for the offshore en- ergy industry. About five percent of Tide- water's active fleet is in the Gulf of Mexico. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TDW. The Cindy Brown Tide is expected to remain in the Gulf of Mexico for now, Badeaux said. The Terrel Tide is at work in Africa and the Lebouef Tide is in Brazil. (Credit: Skeets Photo Service) MR Feb.12 # 2 (10-17):MR Template 2/6/2012 12:16 PM Page 12