Bollinger Shipyards gets new ownership, CEO
Bollinger Shipyards Inc. announced in late December that Ben Bordelon will assume the duties of chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Ben Bordelon, along with the Chouest family from Galliano, La., has acquired all assets and stock of Bollinger Shipyards.
Bordelon has served in many capacities during his career at Bollinger, and has been a member of the board of directors since 2002. He has served as executive vice president of repair and most recently as chief operating officer of Bollinger Shipyards.
Donald G. Bollinger founded the shipyard in 1946 as Bollinger Machine Shop & Shipyard Inc. He served as chairman until 1985. Donald Bollinger’s son, Boysie Bollinger, has served as chairman from 1985. Boysie Bollinger’s son Chris Bollinger served on the board of directors during his employment at Bollinger. As the founder’s grandson, Ben Bordelon transitions Bollinger Shipyards to its third generation.
Crowley wins Military Sealift Command contract
Crowley Maritime Corp.’s global ship management group announced Dec. 16 that the company has been awarded the contract for the operation and maintenance of the T-AGOS/T-AGM fleet for the Military Sealift Command. This fleet of seven ships supports the Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor Systems (SURTASS) operations; the U.S. Air Force's dual-band, phased array and parabolic dish radars; and other government research missions.
The contract covers the operation and maintenance of five T-AGOS and up to two T-AGM ocean surveillance ships. Crowley will provide personnel, operational and technical support (ashore and afloat), equipment, tools, provisions and supplies to operate this fleet of seven United States Naval Ships (USNS).
“The issuance of this contract is well-matched with Crowley’s capabilities, not only in the company’s ability to manage specialized vessels, but also in providing the U.S. government with a variety of maritime services,” said Todd Busch, Crowley's senior vice president and general manager, technical services. “The very nature of the T-AGOS/T-AGM missions demand sophisticated top management solutions and talented crews that Crowley offers. We are pleased to continue services to the Military Sealift Command and look forward to future opportunities to support the government.”
The T-AGOS fleet includes USNS Victorious, USNS Loyal, USNS Effective, USNS Impeccable and USNS Able. The T-AGM fleet includes the USNS Invincible and USNS Howard O. Lorenzen. All seven ships use SURTASS equipment to gather undersea acoustic data around the world in support of anti-submarine warfare operations. The ships carry electronic equipment to process and transmit data via satellite to shore stations for evaluation. Victorious is built on a small waterplane, twin-hull (or SWATH) design for greater stability at slow speeds in high latitudes under adverse weather conditions. Impeccable has a hull form based on that of Victorious, but has a more powerful propulsion plant and is designed specifically for deploying an additional active towed-array system.
Crowley said the contract will result in additional job opportunities being made available for crewmembers with experience on these types of vessels, as well as shoreside positions, such as engineers and contracting professionals.
TPG Marine acquires Chicago Dry Dock
Indiana-based TPG Mt. Vernon Marine LLC purchased Chicago Dry Dock, a Chicago area shipyard founded in 1979. The announcement was made Dec. 10.
Chicago Dry Dock operates on the Calumet River and offers unencumbered access to both the Great Lakes — via Lake Michigan — and the Inland River System, via the Calumet/Des Plaines/Illinois rivers.
Founded as Kern Barge Cleaning and Repair, CDD purchased its first dry dock in 1995 and was renamed and incorporated as Chicago Dry Dock in 1996. Operating from seven acres less than three river miles from Lake Michigan, it has 1,200 feet of sheeted wall and two floating dry docks that can accommodate repairs to vessels 262 feet long, 54 feet wide and up to 1,500 tons, including tug boats, tow boats, commercial tour and passenger vessels, pleasure boats and barges of all types.
The facility provides comprehensive barge and boat cleaning and topside repairs for vessels in Chicago and northwest Indiana.
TPG Mt. Vernon Marine, owned by TPG Marine Enterprises LLC, operates several growing harbor services on the lower Ohio River along with dry dock repair services.
“We’ve worked successfully with a number of Illinois waterways and Great Lakes groups in the past,” said TPG Marine President Don W. Miller Jr. “We have every confidence we can build an expanded maritime repair business on the solid reputations of Chicago Dry Dock and TPG.”
TPG Chicago Dry Dock will retain its current management and staff.
Bollinger adds dry-dock lift capacity
Bollinger Shipyards announced on Dec. 11 that it has taken delivery of two dry docks with a total lifting capacity of 12,000 tons.
The announcement was made by Bollinger’s then-Chief Operating Officer Ben Bordelon: “These two docks will position us well in the diverse customer markets that we serve and will further enhance our position in the market with lifting capacity needed by our customers.” Terms and conditions of the purchase were not made available.
One of the docks, a 10,500-ton dry dock, will be located at the Bollinger Port Fourchon facility. It measures 320 feet by 100 feet between the wing walls. Bollinger now has three commercial dry docks in Fourchon with a combined lifting capacity of over 22,000 tons.
The second dock, a 1,500-ton dry dock, will be located at the Bollinger Quick Repair (BQR) facility in Harvey, La., and measures 160 feet by 60 feet between the wing walls. BQR is located off the Mississippi River on the Harvey Canal and provides service to both the inland and offshore marine transportation sector with six dry docks ranging from 900- to 3,400-ton lifting capacity.
Bollinger recently announced the development of Bollinger Fourchon North at the Port of Fourchon. Scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2015, the facility will have ample dry dock capacity for most all of the vessels operating in the Gulf and out of the port. In addition to the three docks currently in the port for Bollinger, the facility will include a business park with housing, fabrication and machining for subsea equipment, structural components for subsea pipelines and deepwater developments, as well as project and equipment lay-down areas. The current Bollinger facility, Bollinger Fourchon South, will remain the rig, topside repair and conversion facility on the main channel in the Port of Fourchon.
Moose Boats delivers two patrol boats
Aluminum boat manufacturer Moose Boats has announced the delivery of two patrol boats.
The builder delivered an M2-38 Patrol Catamaran to the United States Park Police in Fort Tilden, N.Y., as well as an M2-38 Wide Cabin Patrol Catamaran to the New Jersey State Police in Point Pleasant, N.J.
The U.S. Park Police’s all-aluminum catamaran is powered by twin 425-hp Cummins turbo diesel engines with TwinDisc transmissions coupled to Hamilton HJ292 water jets. Maneuvering is achieved by dual complete Hamilton BlueArrow control stations at both the central cabin helm station and cockpit. The M2 features a 10-foot-wide-by-12-foot-long fully enclosed cabin complete with a mini-galley, large workstation, dinette and three shock-mitigating seats. The cuddy cabin features additional storage and a head compartment.
The new M2-38 joins the M1-44 and M340C catamarans already in service bringing Park Police’s Moose Boat fleet to three. Moose Boats has catamarans in service with the New York City Police Department, New Jersey State Police, New York Naval Militia, Bridgeport Police Department, Old Saybrook Fire Department and Northport Fire Department. Two additional Moose Boats vessels currently under construction will bring the Tri-State area fleet of Moose Boats to a total of 17.
Park Police Sgt. Grant Arthur said, “Government services in and around Jamaica Bay were greatly affected by Hurricane Sandy and while our Park Police team took a major hit when we lost several boats in our fleet due to this voracious storm, we came back stronger with a one-of-a-kind Moose Boat, which was funded by the National Park Service and other Government recovery funds. Marine Four, currently housed in the Rockaways, is a state-of-the-art sea craft that enables us to be armed and ready to support government mandated anti-terrorism efforts, conduct search and rescue operations, as well as being the on-demand escort team for key government officials needing the security of our team and effective transport in and around JFK Airport and the Jamaica Bay.”
The New Jersey State Police all-aluminum catamaran is powered by twin 425-hp Cummins turbo diesel engines with TwinDisc transmissions coupled to Hamilton HJ292 waterjets with Hamilton BlueArrow Controls, and features a hydraulically driven firefighting system and remote control fire monitor. The 10-foot-wide-by-12-foot- long cabin configuration features a shock-mitigating center helm seat, two shock-mitigating companion seats, galley, dinette and workstation with a cuddy cabin accommodating a head and additional storage areas. With the vast load capacity of its proven catamaran hull, Moose Boats’ increasingly popular M2-38 Wide Cabin models offer the features of much larger craft without sacrificing stability or performance while staying under the Port Security Grant Program individual project cap of $1 million.
The new M2-38 catamaran joins a Moose Boats M1-44 catamaran and two Moose Boats M2 catamaran sister ships previously in service with New Jersey State Police.
