Gene Taylor loses reelection bid

After 11 terms in the House, Rep. Gene Taylor has lost his bid to be re-elected to the Mississippi District 4 seat. His was one of a number of defeats that will reshape the membership of key Committees.

Republican Steven Palazzo defeated Taylor, a conservative Democrat, by 52 percent to 47 percent in unofficial results Tuesday night, the Sun Herald reported this morning.

Taylor lost his seat as part of a national trend that saw Democrats lose control of the House. His eleven terms brought with a seniority that placed him well to defend shipbuilding interests as Chairman of the key Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. He is also Co-Chairman of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus.

Taylor is also a member of the Transportation and Infrastucture — another important panel that will look a lot different in the new Congress.

Not only will it be controlled by Republicans, but a lot of familiar Democratic faces will be missing – most noticeably Chairman James Oberstar (Minn.) who lost his re-election bid. Other Democrats on the committee who fell to Republican challengers include, besides Gene Taylor,Michael A. Arcuri (N.Y.), John A. Boccieri (Ohio), Christopher P. Carney (Pa.), John J. Hall (N.Y.), Phil Hare (Ill.), Steve Kagen (Wisc.), Betsy Markey (Colo.), Michael E. McMahon (N.Y.), Harry E. Mitchell (Ariz.), Solomon P. Ortiz (Texas), Thomas S.P. Perriello (Va.), Mark H. Schauer (Mich.), Harry Teague (N.M.) and Dina Titus (Nev.). Democrat Brian Baird of Washington did not run. His House seat was won by Republican Jaime Herrera.

The key Transportation subcommittee of interest to MarineLog readers is the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee. Rep. Oberstar was a member of the panel by virtue of his chairmanship of the parent committee. Other panel members who lost their reelection fight were its Vice Chairman, Michael McMahon and Gene Taylor and Steve Kagen,

Transportation Committee rank member John Mica (Fla.) won reelection as did Coast Guard subcommittee ranking member Frank LoBiondo (N.J.). While Rep. Mica is widely tipped to take over the Chairmanship of the Committee, Rep. LoBiondo will have enough seniority in the next Congress that he may well set his sights higher than the Coast Guard panel.

Elijah E. Cummings, Md, will presumably now move from the Chair of the Coast Guard panel to the ranking member slot. He leaves a legacy of giving the Coast Guard rather more oversight than some predessors did. It will be interesting to see if this “tough love” approach continues.

Nov. 5, 2010

New Mitsui bulker cuts CO2 emissions

 

Named the “neo Supramax 66BC,” the new ship is an enlarged version of Mitsui’s best selling 56,000 dwt type handymax bulker, for which it has received over 150 orders

Development of the neo Supramax 66BC design involved extensive consultations with shipowners and operators and investigations of more than 600 ports all over the world. The result is a ship designed to have wide beam (36 m) and shallow draft, taking into account current 56BC trading patters and the expansion of Panama Canal, expected in 2014.

The ship is a general use bulk carrier equipped with deck cranes and suited for the carriage of bulk cargoes including coal, iron ore, wheat, barley, soya beans, etc. It can also carry lengthy/heavy cargoes such as steel pipe and hot coil. Hatch openings are optimized for the existing cargo handling equipment at various ports.

Although the neo Supramax 66BC is larger than the 56BC, its fuel consumption less as a result of adopting Mitsui’s newly developed energy-saving hull form.

The shipbuilder is offering two specifications for the ship – Premium and Standard. The Premium model will achieves a reduction of CO2 emission by about 21 percent on a ton-mile basis with a further reduction of up to about 30 percent with the application of optional software and hardware .

Mitsui is also developing measures to meet future SOx and NOx emission controls and requirements for ballast water treatment system is adopted, which is a hot current topic among maritime industries.

Principal Particulars of the Ship

Length overall 200 m

Breadth 36 m

Depth 18.45 m

Full-load draft 12.9 m

Deadweight 66,000 metric tons

Service speed 14.5 knots

Caterer offers healthier shipboard food

 

Not surprisingly, their health is less good than the general population, according to the ITF. Studies around the world show risks include obesity. A survey of Danish seafarers found that three-quarters of those over the age of 45 have a weight above normal.

“Besides its influence on health, obesity may be a safety issue at sea. It may be difficult for obese persons to perform safety tasks aboard in emergencies, to use escape routes and ladders and to enter a lifeboat or a life raft. This can be crucial not only for the obese persons, but also for those depending on their actions or who are involved in assisting them,” said the report by Danish occupational health professionals.

Part of the problem may lie in the seafarer’s onboard diet. One company that appears to be taking steps to address this is Garrets International Limited, a London-based marine contract catering company.

Garrets says it got its start when shipping companies looking to save money started to dispense with the services of Catering Superintendents, Pursers and Catering Officers. “As a consequence,” says the company, “tasks traditionally carried out by these officers came within the remit of Engineering Superintendents, with most on-board catering administration duties falling to the Master.

Garrets stepped in to bridge the gap between shipowners/managers, their sea staff and suppliers by offering a complete catering management service. It says that its considerable purchasing power means it can obtain good quality food at the keenest prices.

An indication of Garrets’ purchasing power is that it supplies 7.5 million eggs annually. Those eggs are now free range, preempting an EU requirement that will take effect in 2012. Now, the company says itbis taking its healthy eating free range egg policy a stage further by offering a wider range of new free range and healthy eating products at even more ports in Europe, the U.S., Australia and Korea.
 
It has also started supplying ships in the Middle East, Far East, U.S. and South Africa with low fat, low sugar and low salt varieties of quality brands of mayonnaise, ketchup, and canned products including baked beans. Another part of the initiative is to supply vessels with sunflower oil instead of the more traditional vegetable oil. Sunflower oil is low in saturated fat, helping to control cholesterol levels.

November 4, 2010

Why the ship didn’t hit the span

Reading some of the press coverage you might think that the giant cruise ship had actually scraped the bridge.

Here’s one example of the coverage the effort earned:

“A Royal Caribbean European cruise ship barely escaped what could have been an unfortunate accident Saturday, narrowly avoiding a bridge in Denmark by mere inches.”

And another.

The Royal Caribbean cruise ship Allure of the Seas barely made it under Denmark’s Storebelt Bridge on Saturday. The crew and passengers applauded as the ship finally cleared the bridge with barely a foot to spare.

Of course, the giant Royal Caribbean ship was designed to safely pass under the bridge  on its passage from STX Finland to its homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A Royal Caribbean video clip explains how you get a ship that normally has a height above the waterline of about 73 meters (240 feet) under a bridge offering a clearance of 65 m (213 ft).

   

Captain found drunk gets prison term

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington, Seong Ug Sin, the captain of the STX Daisy, has been sentenced to 14 days in prison, and six months of supervised release, during which time he is not allowed to sail in United States waters. He was arrested April 14, 2010, after a Coast Guard inspection crew found him drunk while in command of the 590 foot vessel in the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

At trial earlier this month, the evidence revealed that Sin’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura imposed the sentence October 25 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Wash.
According to testimony at trial, the coast guard inspection team had difficulty boarding the STX Daisy in the early morning hours of April 14, 2010, as Captain Sin failed repeatedly to follow their instructions. The ten member inspection crew needed to board the 20 ton freighter from a small inflatable boat during three foot swells. Once on board, Captain Sin continued to have difficulty providing the records required, and a review determined he had no usable charts of Puget Sound. The ship was ordered to Port Angeles. Sin was given a breath test, which revealed his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for being in command of a vessel. A search of the ship determined that significant quantities of Korean whisky had been consumed by Sin and one other officer.

In asking for a significant sentence, the government noted the potential for disaster with a drunk captain aboard a 20,763 gross tons freighter.

“The consequences of an accident that may have occurred due to the defendant’s intoxication could have been catastrophic. The defendant’s intended journey through the Straits of Juan de Fuca and down the Puget Sound to Olympia covered over 205 miles through areas characterized by narrow channels and strong currents. More importantly, the defendant’s intended track crossed no less than six Washington State Ferry routes, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and many areas of high commercial shipping and recreational boating activity. The defendant’s ship, carrying large quantities of fuel oil posed further risk to the marine environment. In the interest of public safety, a strong sentence is warranted to deter future mariners from following in this defendant’s wake,” the Assistant U.S. Attorneys wrote in their sentencing memo.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Thomas and David Reese Jennings, and by Special Assistant United States Attorney Marc Zlomek. Mr. Zlomek is a Lieutenant Commander and an attorney with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Alcoa Defense awarded JHSV subcontract

“We are excited to be working with Austal on this groundbreaking fleet,” said David Dobson, president, Alcoa Defense. “Through our design and engineering expertise, we are helping to expedite the manufacturing process for the fleet while simultaneously making aluminum shipbuilding more affordable.”

Designed to secure cargo, equipment and vehicles in the JHSV’s mission bay, the all-aluminum tie downs are 50 percent lighter than conventional steel tie downs. The tie downs will be manufactured from high-strength aluminum by Alcoa’s facility in Auburn, Ind.

Collaboratively developed by Alcoa and Austal USA, the all-aluminum tie downs were designed to replace traditional steel tie downs, which require a more expensive, complex, labor-intensive process for joining and installation. The aluminum tie downs offer the same structural strength and performance as steel at a fraction of the weight and installed cost. Additionally, the aluminum tie downs enhance the long-term durability and structural integrity of the JHSV because, unlike steel, they will not produce galvanic corrosion when attached to the JHSV’s aluminum deck.

“We are now applying decades of experience in creating subassemblies for a variety of industries to build innovative, high-quality marine structures,” said Scott R. Kerns, vice president and general manager, Alcoa Transportation Products. “Alcoa makes it easier and more affordable for shipyards to integrate aluminum structures in their vessels.”

The announcement of the tie down subcontract follows Alcoa being awarded the subcontract for sheet and plate for the JHSV.

Cruising: New Ships and New Thinking

Now there are signs that new players are eyeing the market.

One is Trondheim, Norway, entrepreneur Olav Norum. He is putting together a venture called Project Vision Quest that intends to target the U.S. market for conferences at sea with three 273 m long, 70,000 gt , 1,200 passenger ships developed in cooperation with Aker Finnyards Technology. The price tag of each ship would be around Euros 390 million (about $510 million). Plans are for the first ship to be delivered in 2007.

Facilities aboard each ship would include conference seating for 1,300 people, with some 3,500 square meter of convertible exhibition/conference space.

So if Norum builds these ships, will people come? Vision Quest only needs to capture a tiny percentage of the U.S. conference market in order to fill the ships. In the past the issue of U.S. tax deductibility of conference expenses aboard foreign ships has been one argument used in favor of building U.S.-flag cruise ships. Norum says he is aware of the issue, but that the much lower cost of staging an event on board an internationally flagged vessel would more than offset the tax savings in question.

Tidewater to raise $425 million in private note placement

Closings are contemplated October 15, 2010 and December 30, 2010, when the company expects to issue a multiple series of notes totaling $310 million and $115 million, respectively. The notes will have maturities ranging from 5 years to 12 years and have a weighted average life to maturity of approximately 9 years. The notes may be retired before their respective scheduled maturity dates subject only to a make-whole provision. The weighted average coupon on the notes is 4.25 percent.

Dean Taylor, Tidewater’s Chief Executive Officer, noted “Tidewater’s ability to access the credit and capital markets on very favorable terms reflects the company’s strong financial position. In recent quarters, the company’s focus has shifted from fleet renewal and earnings replacement to longer-term growth initiatives. Competitive financing arrangements allow us to opportunistically acquire and/or build vessels that address changing customer requirements and to best position our company for a future market recovery.”

Proceeds from the note sales will be used to refinance borrowings under Tidewater’s $450 million revolving credit facility, which remains available until May 2012, to fund capital expenditures related to the Company’s on-going fleet enhancement program and for general corporate purposes.

The notes will be sold in a private placement to purchasers that are accredited investors and are restricted securities that may not be resold by such purchasers except pursuant to an exemption from registration under the federal securities laws.