Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2013)

www.marinelink.com 45In less than three months Vigor Ma- rine replaced the bow of Olympic Spirit, an 80,000 BBL double hull petroleum barge owned by Harley Marine subsid- iary, Olympic Tug & Barge, Inc. ?This was a unique project that you just can?t do in any shipyard,? said Harley Franco, Founder & CEO of Harley Marine Ser- vices. ?So we went to Vigor, who we thought would be the best facility and the best place on the West Coast to meet that challenge. The size of this bow, how to stage the job effectively and get us back out to sea as quickly as possible were major considerations.?The bow replacement of Olympic Spirit was made necessary by mistakes that were made during the original con-struction of the barge. Harley worked closely with naval architect, Elliott Bay Design Group, on the most effective strategy to bring Olympic Spirit up to Harley?s standards, and it was mutually agreed that a total bow replacement was the best solution. The 300-ton bow module was pre-built in a section of Vigor?s 150,000 sq. ft. of fabrication bays in its Swan Island shipyard in Portland, Oregon allowing the vessel to continue operations. As the module neared completion, the Olympic Spirit was transported to the Portland yard and lifted by one of Vigor?s dry- docks and positioned at the end of a 800 ft. long build way. There the existing bow was removed and the new module was attached. The design work provided by Harley and El-liott Bay allowed Vigor to retain the for- ward collision bulkhead, speeding and simplifying installation. www.VigorIndustrial.com Smith Berger Marine, Inc.builds a full range of Shark Jaws for AnchorHandling Tug Supply vessels. Standard ratings are 100, 200, 350, 500 and 750 metric tons and all units have Quick Release at the rated load.Smith Berger flexibility allows us to customize our equipment to suit theoperating characteristics of your vessel. Third party certification, loadtests, release tests and load monitoring systems are available options. Rely on the 100 year history of Smith Berger to outfit your vessel with our rugged and dependable equipment.SMITHBERGERMARINE, INC.OFFERSA COMPLETELINEOF SHARK JAWS ? TOWING PINS ? STERN ROLLERS Smith Berger Marine, Inc.7915 10th Ave., S., Seattle, WA 98108 USA Tel. 206.764.4650 ? Toll Free 888.726.1688 ? Fax 206.764.4653 E-mail: [email protected] ? Web: www.smithberger.com SAFE - RELIABLE - ECONOMICALVigor Completes 300-Ton Bow Replacement MR #1 (42-50).indd 45MR #1 (42-50).indd 451/3/2013 11:34:16 AM1/3/2013 11:34:16 AM