Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2023)

COVER STORY CURTIN MARITIME gh gh gh gh gh gh nd t “We f WhW W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W Wh W en C Curti tin b buil ilt t th the S Sarah h C C iit went t t to t th he spot t ma k rk t et. “W fell ll ii t nto a i ni h che, a d th hrough h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h that niche we started doing a lot of work supporting marine construction and dredging.

That’s when we started to realize that our skillset was well-suited specifically to mechanical dredg ging. g deliver the performance needed. “LNG is something that’s we are able to do far outpaces our physical appearance. But interesting, speci? cally where LNG is combined with elec- when you go from ? ve to 270 employees, the ability to main- tric [citing Harvey Gulf’s success with the set-up. But [there tain that standard becomes the most dif? cult part, maintaining has been bad luck with] LNG direct propulsion because it just that culture and those foundational components.” doesn’t create the torque,” he said. Another challenge is ? nding the employees and crew to

All things considered, Curtin likes the idea of pure electric power growth. “It’s probably the single biggest challenge that based on the simplicity of the system, but admits that for the our industry is facing … and that’s really saying something type of work Curtin Maritime does, it simply does not ? t. “It’s considering I’m sitting in California getting hammered on really like a Tesla versus a Prius, when you start doing hybrid emissions. But the personnel issue is a bigger problem for the componentry with diesel and batteries and all other things, it entire industry.” becomes extremely complicated.” He believes there remain ample talent to ? ll the positions,

Today the Curtin Maritime’s strategy lies in running boats but today it takes far more time and resources to ? nd them. with highest tier rating possible, but stresses that his home “Twenty-? ve years ago, my generation was a little rougher state of California is making even that extremely dif? cult. around the edges and looking for more adventure, plus we “We’ve got boats that have been repowered within the last didn’t have the technology dependent issues that today’s year that will be outdated and ruled out within three years: generations were born with,” said Curtin, estimating that that’s kind of criminal in my opinion,” said Curtin. “Grant- ‘back then’ 50 to 60% of deckhand applicants would work ed, we’ll be able to move those boats to other markets that out, where today there is a 70% to 75% attrition rate. “What don’t have the emissions ratings that California does, but if we’ve discovered is that just like anything else, we don’t re-

California’s not careful, they’ll have nobody playing with ally create mariners, we uncover them,” said Curtin. “We them anymore.” equate it to mining for gold. The miner doesn’t invent the gold, he just ? nds it and then polishes it up. Sometimes it’s

Workforce: Mining for Gold in the form of ore and they have to process the ore to get the

In assessing the company he started with his company to- gold out, but you’ve got to run a ton of yards of dirt through day, Curtin reckons that the closest similarity and biggest dif- your mine to get some gold.” ferences boils down to a single factor: people. “There’s still a lot of good ? ts out there for the maritime “We’ve always prided ourselves on a group that provides industry, but if you need 20 deckhands, you can’t just hire really solid technical solutions and technical skillset,” said 30 and keep 20. If you need 20, you need to hire 100. [Once

Curtin. “I describe our company as a boutique company in they’re here] it’s really about creating a solid career path and the sense that we’re not very large compared to some of the timeline, showing them that if they make captain or chief en- industry giants, but we are extremely sophisticated, and what gineer, eventually you’ll be making $150,000 a year.” 34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2023

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