He (Matsuda) also said Marad is committed to moving the concept of marine highways – also known as short-sea shipping or container-on-barge – from the talking stage into concrete action. He said the Department of Transportation recently identified 16 corridors in the U.S. that hold promise as marine highways, and that the Obama administration has allocated $215 million to marine highway and port projects.
“This is a tough time to be looking for federal money, but this administration has opened up new opportunities for our industry to compete on a level playing field with other transport modes,” Matsuda said. “And we’ve done very well.”
He unveiled three of 11 new concept designs, developed by Marad naval architects, for vessels that could be used in marine highway projects. They involve RoRo, RoCon and feeder ship designs.
The RoRo design envisions a 24-knott vessel that is 682-feet long, with a beam of 93.5 feet and a 23 foot draft. The RoCon, 22-knott ship, would be 660-feet long with a 25-foot draft and a 105 foot beam, and the 18-knott feeder ship would be 497 feet long, with a 81.4 foot beam and a draft of 74.9 feet.
“These are modern, marine highway vessels that I know can be built in U.S. shipyards,” Matsuda said. “We’ve signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy to advance this to the next stage of development.”
The administrator also said that he’s observed the “beginnings” of a recovery in shipbuilding. “I’m not here to declare victory,” he said. “We still have a long way to go and I’m asking you to continue to work with us.”
To quote the Everly Brothers: “Dreaeaeaming…dream…dream…dream…Dreaeaeaming!”
Just as an observation but the who concept of short sea shipping is that using a ro/ro can beat a truck or a train in moving the goods in time and cost. How in the hell can a conventional ro/ro do this. A true short sea ship needs to be a drive through design…in one end and out the other just like all the big ferries in the Baltic. Turning trailers aroung inside of a ship is time consuming and TIME IS MONEY!
Try again MarAd…send someone to Europe to see how it is really done.
Just watched a might ships show on a English channel ferry that was drive on/off can’t remember the name of it but it was impressive how fast their turn around times were for lashing/unloading semi trailers was.
[QUOTE=c.captain;58592]I wonder how much that drawing cost MarAd? And what’s with the engines shown in it? Are they 6-71’s?
Does anyone here ever read Motorship Magazine? The GA drawings they include in it for newbuilds are awesome![/QUOTE]
The engines are a couple of medium speeds. Motorship is awesome, too bad the KP old boys at MARAD have never seen a copy.
I agree with you regarding the traffic flow on that ship. It seems absolutely ridiculous not to have side or bow ramps. I suspect one of the more experienced MARAD guys saw a RRF RoRo once and decided that is how all MARAD RoRos will be until the world ends.
[QUOTE=Steamer;58593]I agree with you regarding the traffic flow on that ship. It seems absolutely ridiculous not to have side or bow ramps. I suspect one of the more experienced MARAD guys saw a RRF RoRo once and decided that is how all MARAD RoRos will be until the world ends.[/QUOTE]
and no effing Z drives either. How in the hell is a captain supposed to get in and out of a harbor fast without bow thrusters and Z drives? These chimps at MarAd are simply clueless!
For Short Sea Shipping to work it will be almost to the minute for a ship to turn itself around in port. Special docks are needed which ships can get in and out of fast. The ships will need to be able to steam and maneuver fast. Everything will need to happen fast…period!
MARAD has released a package of 11 conceptual designs for types of coastal-trading ships, all developed by Herbert Engineering. Read the announcement here and chuckle. This guy Matsuda is a consummate idiot, isn’t he? See profiles of the designs here. (Click on an individual profile to get more detail.) Whether or not this program is actually going anywhere, who knows? Not on an investment of $800,000, that’s sure.