WorkBoat recognized its 10 Significant Boats of 2017 and named its Boat of Year, the Harvey Sub-Sea/Harvey Blue-Sea, at an awards ceremony at the International WorkBoat Show Thursday morning. The awards breakfast was sponsored by Travelers.
The Harvey Sub-Sea/Harvey Blue-Sea were built at Eastern Shipbuilding Group for Harvey Gulf International Marine. Vard designed the 340'×73', 5,737-dwt multipurpose supply vessels (MPSVs).
While the two boat’s roles range from ROV support to marine construction to cable laying to subsea equipment installation and support, the MPSVs were custom-tailored by Vard to fulfill its main mission: deepwater subsea support in the U.S. Gulf. Two launch-and-recovery systems (LARS) allow operation of ROVs up to 250 hp, ranging to depths of 4,000 meters. With so many systems at work, an integrated approach to monitoring and control is provided by the Wärtsilä electronics systems that coordinate power, maneuvering, and customer-support operations. The vessel’s DP-2 system controls the machinery.
For main propulsion, there’s two Schottel SRP 3030 azimuthing fixed-pitch-propeller (FPP) stern drives, powered by variable frequency drive (VFD) motors, producing a total of 8,978 hp. There’s also three Schottel STT 5 fixed-pitch-propeller bow tunnel thrusters, powered by VFD motors, that produce a total of 6,035 hp. Four Wärtsilä 6L32 generators provide 12,680-kW of electrical power to the vessel’s 690-volt system. The power package gives the vessel a top speed of 14 knots and a cruising speed of 12 knots. The 250-ton National Oilwell Varco knuckle-boom crane on the afterdeck has the ability to work at depths of 13,000'.
Receiving 2017 Boat of the Year awards at the WorkBoat Show were (left to right) Robert L. Gwinn III of Harvey Gulf, Brian R. D’Isernia of Eastern, Bill Lind of Vard Marine, and Joey D’Isernia and Kenneth Munroe of Eastern.
“Every capacity, every capability, has to be larger to service the deepwater oilfield,” Chad Verret of Harvey Gulf said. “When your round trip is almost 500 miles, you need to carry everything necessary to install and support sea-floor installations and other subsea activities as well as rig support.”
This year’s list of top boats was dominated by tugs. They made up five of the 10 vessels. Two ferries, an ATB, and a survey vessel were also selected. Six of the boats were built at Gulf Coast shipyards, three at West Coast yards, and one in the Great Lakes.
Here are the other nine winners, in alphabetical order:
Abundance & Harvest (ATB)
Builder: Nichols Brothers Boat Builders (tug Abundance, tug); Vigor (Harvest, barge)
Designer: Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering Co. (tug and barge contract design); Glosten (barge production design); BMT (tug production design); CT Marine (barge structural production engineering)
Operator: Savage (for The Mosaic Company)
Argo, Carina, Cetus, Hydrus (ferries)
Builder: Vigor
Designer: Incat Crowther
Owner: San Francisco Bay Ferry/Water Emergency Transportation Authority
Arkansas, Mardi Gras, South Carolina (tugs)
Builder: Steiner Shipyard Inc.
Designer: Jensen Maritime
Owner: Crescent Towing
Catlett (survey vessel)
Builder: Technology Associates Inc. and Aluma Marine & Fabrication LLC
Designer: Technology Associates Inc.
Owner: Corps of Engineers
Cleveland (tug)
Builder: Great Lakes Shipyard
Designer: Damen
Owner: Great Lakes Towing Co./The Great Lakes Group
Earl W Redd (tug)
Builder: Diversified Marine Inc.
Designer: Jensen Maritime
Owner: Harley Marine Services
Gladys B (tug)
Builder: Signet Shipbuilding & Repair
Designer: Robert Allan Ltd.
Owner: E.N. Bisso & Son Inc.
New York Ferries (ferries)
Builder: Metal Shark and Horizon Shipbuilding Inc.
Designer: Incat Crowther
Owner: NYC Ferry
Trident, Triton, Trinity (tugs)
Builder: Master Boat Builders Inc.
Designer: Robert Allan Ltd.
Owner: Seabulk Towing Inc.
