Investors do not make their projects or their names public, and their studies are confidential. Anyone familiar with basic business practices knows that.
You have not provided any ‘bona fides’ on your negative positions, just hot air opinions.
Obviously you are not a forward thinking entrepreneur.
Thank you for following my posts.
I am retired president, worldwide Marine Transportation for major oil company. Former board member Aker Philadelphia shipyard. Former board member Capital Products (CPLP). Former Managing Director of Qatar Gas Shipping Co (Nakilat) the world’s largest owner/operator or LNG carriers
Member ABS Council. Retired Captain USNR.
BS Marine Engineering. MBA Finance.
Now you tell us what your maritime expertise is if you want to be taken seriously.
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Didn’t @john already try this? What happened to gShip or whatever it was called?
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here is a vision
Rockets tend to do that the first few times.
Why won’t you answer the questions?
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- Autonomous shipping is still a decade or two away, like the cars.
- Perhaps you are retired, but we need MORE mariners, ask any sailor, union rep, or job hall. A call to repurpose KP is probably the stupidest thing I have heard since “it’s just two weeks” and “masks save lives.”
- For all your listed expertise, you don’t seem to know much about the oil and gas trades and international pricing mechanisms.
- The JA would not be well served to lax its build standards.
- You are right; US Flag OPEX is higher than that of the flag of convenience. Do you think we should lower US officer and crew wages?
- The major issue with running barges in the NE is not JA build costs but empty backhaul routes. Logitics 101, perhaps not a course they taught when you went to KP.
- A DoD campus? I guess the Army and Navy war colleges should be shut down, too, to make way for the DoD Cybercampus of Long Island.
- “I don’t know what a JA tug-barge unit costs, but it is probably about the same as a small foreign-built container ship.” - This started as the smartest thing you have said and ended in an atrocity.
- “Would provide hundreds of American mariner jobs.” - where do you plan on getting these extra mariners when you started this whole debacle with the “shutdown of the federal academy”?
- It’s interesting you put a 5x on Capex for US build when this is incorrect.
- “Marad giving billions of dollars in grants” Please provide your sources and links to where entrepreneurs like yourself apply for and get this free money.
You started with a half-baked idea and ended with a nothing burger.
I recommend you do more research and become an expert on the topic. People will then start to value your input.
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NASA contracted with SpaceX/Elon Musk to build a huge, new rocket for our next Moon trip, as a forerunner for a NASA venture to Mars.
The SpaceX rocket did not work 100% the first time, which is the case with many over the top projects.
But NASA recognized their shortcomings as a government agency and decided 'SpaceX/Musk are smarter and more efficient than we are.
Sounds like you are jealous of Elon because your accomplishments do not match his.
I too am jealous of Elon…I wish I was that smart and forward thinking.
You are absolutely correct: a great vision, as all successful business people have had. How do they make the numbers work building in a US yard? A 600’ vessel built in a US yard would probably cost $150-200 million.
Think higher. The new academy training ships are 524 feet of bunkbeds and run over $300 million each. Matson’s Aloha class (854’) were ordered almost 10 years ago at over $200 million each…granted longer than your suggested 600’ but there’s been some inflation in the last decade. Their new ones of similar length being built now are closer to $333 million each. And that’s a ship that only holds 3,600 teu.
I believe you are describing the Artemis program, as that is our next “moon trip”.
Starship is being developed for future exploration, including Mars, but Artemis will be first to the moon. Already has been, just doing laps with no one onboard.
Where they heck are you going to run a 600’ feeder to on the east coast? That’s hilarious.
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(As Lake guys look at Google-earth and think, “Where couldn’t you run a 600ft boat in the northeast??”)
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At 600 feet you’re looking at about 2,000 teu. Try dropping that at any port - or any two ports - in Connecticut and see what happens.
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You haven’t run the Cuyahoga or Calumet River on a 700+ ft boat, I suspect. (Go to Marinetraffic and zoom in on Irishtown Bend in Cleveland where you will see my former rig twisting our way up toward the head of navigation…6ft off is not close for us up here). "Boat Tetris"is a thing. Just need good coffee and Ozzy on the Sirius XM to find your groove. Nothing magic, just boat driving.
My post was a tongue in cheek poke at how most Lake sailors view the rest of the world. Granted, we have some current, but tides and other issues make our way of doing business a poor fit in other ports. (But I think Bridgeport/New Haven/New London/Stamford would work with some new docks…which of course is the rub; $$$ and time to create the infrastructure)
This thread started with how we could expand the US merchant marine in order to provide jobs for grads from KP and the SMA’s. The feeder service in the NE is an example of an unserviced JA trade brought about by the high cost of building ships.
Anyone have other ideas for expanding the US flag fleet?
THe 600’ number is just an example of the cost to build in the US, not a proposal for what size the feeder vessels should be.
Yea but everything I have ever written on here has been shot down and edited since I was the only member only admitting to being female back in 2008 so it doesn’t matter what I say because this site doesn’t like women.
All reasons why a tug and barge container trade to small ports in the NE would make a lot more sense than purpose built small container ships.
The biggest obstacle to short sea shipping in the USA is ridiculously high cost longshoremen. The longshoremen costs exceed the tug and barge costs.
The use of 300 container, 10 foot draft, barges going to small “ports” where there are no longshoremen is the key to success.
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I find it hard to believe that you have been censored just because you are a woman. Were your posts controversial?