Interesting new ship in Fourchon

Shipyard labor and overhead are an order of magnitude cheaper in Louisiana and Florida than in Norway and Holland.

Just imagine how American shipyards could reduce their costs, if they had access to FREE health care, no worker’s comp premiums, and no lawsuits. Not to mention the inherent advantages of the VAT tax system for exported products like ships in Norway and Holland.

The biggest advantages that Norway and Holland have are the highly skilled workers produced by their FREE trade schools and colleges, and their guild apprenticeship system. Not to mention all the government subsidies and support that shipyards receive.

There must be some reason why a small country like Norway with less than 0.1% of the world population owns or controls somewhere around 25% of world shipping. Instead of complaining about how the Japanese and Chinese copy all of our ideas and products and build them cheaper than we can, maybe we should start copying Norwegian ideas and products.

[QUOTE=salt’n steel;81208]HOS’s Ironhorse and Achiever are subsea construction ships built in a weather proof building in holland. IMHO, a US yard could not build a comparable ship for the same cost or quality.

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Equipment has already been ordered for a US built construction vessel that will surpass that of the Iron Horse or Achiever design. Several years back, there was a 24 person SAT dive vessel with 200 ton heave-comp crane at Bergen Yards in Norway; the company that ordered the vessel could not take delivery and was trying to sell the contract without too much of a loss.
The Chouest family heard of this through Norwegian friends, went to Norway, swooped in straight to Bergen Group and bought the vessel (without the original owners even knowing) and the sale was completed in a few hours, just like that. This was a recognition and an attempt by Chouest to get one of the most advanced Norwegian vessels in the world for marketing in the US, by a US company. Of course, Island Offshore managed the conversion and vessel encase the vessel could get a contract on the Norwegian shelf with it having those expensive requirements, such as UREA exhaust and ice class.
This vessel would have to be converted to become a full construction vessel with ROV’s, and even another crane added for loading/offloaded while at sea because of the Jones Act. If you cannot run the Norwegian companies out of the GOM, you can certainly get a vessel of that caliber and compete in your own back yard.
The vessel, the Island Enforcer, was one of the most advanced vessels that I have been on, even compared to the 6th generation drill ship I work on now. The Island Enforcer eventually came to the US, and worked with full American Crew in Trinidad and now back in the North Sea - still with US crew. Unfortunately, the vessel did not stay in the GOM, for several reasons; It got lucrative contracts outside of the gulf, and the crane which was originally to support dive work, did not have capacity to work in the ultra-deep water GOM in ROV support. The Island Enforcer is due to have a crane upgrade after its current contract to expand it’s portfolio and should be back in the GOM at some point.

Just so most people are aware, these nice Norwegian boats are not even built in Norway. They are built in Poland or Romania and towed to Norway to be fitted out. The construction quality is not as good as the Aiviq for instance when looking at craftsmanship. It’s the Norwegian design and thinking that makes these vessels special, not the construction of them. As Master on the Island Enforcer, I walked with the Senior Naval Architect from North American Ship Building and he was amazed at just the Rolls Royce Anti-Heeling system. He said that system alone, from a design standpoint, took more man hours than that of an entire 280 foot supply boat.

Well, luckily, and very smartly, when Chouest got the Island Enforcer and had Skipsteknisk AS (the design firm) redesign the vessel to sub-sea construction, they purchased the design as well and have the right to build similar vessels, US flagged ones, and have that planned this year, something based closely to the ST-257L CD design.

Since then, another very advanced X-Bow well vessel was purchased by the Chouest family and do not be surprised if that comes to the gulf and has all US crew at some point. In fact, if you are a US owner and have over 50% vested interest in any foreign vessel, you do not have the option to get a manning waiver, it must be all US crew. It’s not like HOS had the option to keep foreigners on the Iron Horse or Achiever even though they are not US flagged. No pats on the back needed when there was no choice to begin with. Same with any other operator.

salt’n steel…I cannot believe you have the opinion that you do, but hopefully I swayed you a little. There is a reason why in Holland you would build in-doors…so you can continue year round. The quality has always been with the American worker provided that company standards where they work demand it. Without doubt, NAS puts out quality, always has…building an icebreaker in South Louisiana says something.

Thank you Anchorman and Tugsailor on your articulate and informative posts on this thread. Guess I’ve had to work on some bad examples of the US shipbuilding industry. I’ll withhold the names but one came out of a yard in the Escatawpa river. I’ll look forward to seeing the new US built subsea construction vessel Anchorman described.