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Posted By: Jason Posted On: Aug 16, 2007 Views: 1602	USCG - Marine Inspection and Mariner Licensing It was refreshing to see recent press regarding Congressional hearings into the capability and expertise of the USCG in the areas of marine inspection, licensing and documentation of seamen. The CG has "circled the wagons" but their recent performance in the areas of ship construction and procurement, discharging oily waste into US waters should be proof enough that it is time to return to the days of the Steamboat Inspection Service. The present Commandant may have been adept at "sticking a finger in the dike" during recent hurricanes however, he's neither a Master Mariner or Chief Engineer. With the US fleet a meer pittance of years past there are many highly qualified "senior" deck and engine officers ashore to man up an agency tasked with these functions. It has always been ludicrous to have had applications scrutinized and been examined when sitting for a license by people with absolutely no qualifications as well as having some petty officer boarding a ship, 9mm on his/her hip and taking a Master and/or Chief Engineer to task over whether his/her ship/plant is safe or not. Talk and Congressional hearings are cheap - now let's see some action.
Posted By: Ron Posted On: Aug 9, 2007 Views: 1556	USCG Feeding the Hands that Bite Them One has to wonder if the senior leadership in both the USCG and Congress have both oars in the water with regards to the recent announcement of further National Security Cutter contracts. Based on some of the recent workmanship by NGSS in both Navy (San Antonio) and Polar vessels you'd think they'd step back and evaluate the merits of the use of proven licensed designs. Why must everything be different here in the US than in the rest of the "modern" maritime world? Might it be the powerful effect of those extravagant "grazes" by Washington lobbyists? It's a shame to see a deal sealed by a free lunch however, one must assume that it beats one consumated via sheer ignorance.
Posted By: Jason Posted On: Jul 24, 2007 Views: 1634	The "TWIC" Controversy The ongoing TWIC saga shows just how little leverage the industry and in particular the maritime unions have these days. The TWIC is a total waste of money for both the taxpayer and presently documented and licensed mariners as they have already endured aan arduous USCG vetting including fingerprinting and background checks. The TWIC would be a valuable tool for documenting port workers and others with access to both port facilities and vessels as presently very little is done to look into the backgrounds of such individuals. In summation, the unions and US flag shipping companies have sold out to the USCG plain and simple.
Posted By: Jason Posted On: Jul 16, 2007 Views: 1598	OSG and the "Magic Pipe" Seems OSG has just got it's transom slapped by MSC in the latest bidding war for new MSC contracts. Will be interesting to see how this shakes out as reportedly OSG had high hopes for the new Veteran class tankers in the lucrative MSC market. Perhaps they can employ them in the lightering arm of the former Maritrans.
Posted By: DocDiesel Posted On: Jul 14, 2007 Views: 1552	Congrats to US Shipping Partners Best of luck with the delivery of the ATB FREEPORT. A bit lengthy project however, now that she is in service hopefully she will go a long ways towards promoting the benefits of Heavy Fuel operations in the inland sector.
Posted By: MR. JONES Posted On: Jul 12, 2007 Views: 1478	That lawsuit Those lawsuits are a response to an apparently outrageous interpretation of the second proviso of the Jones Act. Apparently, the Coast Guard doesn't think that double hulling a vessel amounts to a major hull mofification!
Posted By: Jason Posted On: Jul 12, 2007 Views: 1380	OSG/Crowley vs US Gov't One has to sit back and wonder where professional players like OSG and Crowley find both the time and money to pursue trivial issues such as the foreign conversions of hulks such as the Seabulk Trader and the US Shipping ITB's. Both now enjoy the luxury and efficiency of new tonnage while others have chosen to take a "three decks and no bottom" approach to meeting OPA90 requirements. Most certainly OSG's new tankers and Crowley's new ATB's will be far more efficient and less troublesome in the long run than these other old hulks. Let's see some of that money feeding the lawyers invested in state of the art training facilities for marine engineers or scholarships for bright young engineers and architects. How about a new diesel schoolship?
Posted By: Ron Posted On: Jul 11, 2007 Views: 1361	AHL Announcement Refreshing to see another order for some domestic tonnage. Hopefully this project will move ahead successfully. We now have OSG, USSLP, Crowley/MTLX and AHL moving ahead. Hopefully Keystone will get on the bandwagon as well as Horizon Lines with some new Jones Act vessels.
Posted By: Jason Posted On: Jun 28, 2007 Views: 1398	USCG CPB's No surprise the USCG CPB program was successful and they returned to Bollinger for more, the boats were designed by Damen. Now if they followed the same lead for their deepwater program they would have been successful there as well!
Posted By: Getting tougher Posted On: Jun 17, 2007 Views: 1473	Rougher waters ahead It seems everyone these days is talking about their carbon footprint. While shipping produced an estimated 2% of the world's carbon dioxide while moving about 90% of its goods, you can fully expect tougher guidelines from IMO and perhaps even stricter regulations from regional authorities. Those who think these regulatons are too tough to comply with should find another job because it isn't going to get any easier. They'll either end in jail, severly fined or both.
Posted By: Ron Posted On: Jun 11, 2007 Views: 1485	IMO IMO does a good job of researching and developing international "guidelines" for ship operations, environmental and a myriad of other issues. Much like any "advisory" body without actual enforcement authority IMO relies on the individual signatory states to develop and implement the actual enactment and enforcement legislation for each issue. With the US about to ratify MARPOL ANnnex VI you will see the tug of war begine here with individual states concerned over the ir individual interests in any legislation enacted by Congress.
Posted By: MISSING ANSWER Posted On: Jun 10, 2007 Views: 1388	TOO TOUGH! You should have also provided an option that they are too tough in some cases and are thus "worked around" defeating their purpose!

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