Could be a good thing I guess thoughts?
[QUOTE=rshrew;141235]http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7022%3Ajm-martinac-sold-at-foreclosure-auction&Itemid=223
Could be a good thing I guess thoughts?[/QUOTE]
if the yard doesn’t close and is not liquidated it would be good news for the few workers there but it would appear that for the Martinac family who has owned the yard for generations would be completely out of the business and all their equity they have in the yard and property as well. For a company to have survived since the 20’s have it all end like this because a lender demanded their money seems very sad. That Alaska Leader Fisheries couldn’t be content to wait for repayment and help the Martinac family seems rather predatory but that is the new way of American business…TAKE NO PRISONERS…LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!
I wonder if the family still has equity in some of the tuna seiners they built? I have heard that they do but may have sold all that a long time ago to survive.
[QUOTE=c.captain;141236]if the yard doesn’t close and is not liquidated it would be good news for the few workers there but it would appear that for the Martinac family who has owned the yard for generations would be completely out of the business and all their equity they have in the yard and property as well. For a company to have survived since the 20’s have it all end like this because a lender demanded their money seems very sad. That Alaska Leader Fisheries couldn’t be content to wait for repayment and help the Martinac family seems rather predatory but that is the new way of American business…TAKE NO PRISONERS…LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!
I wonder if the family still has equity in some of the tuna seiners they built? I have heard that they do but may have sold all that a long time ago to survive.[/QUOTE]
And perhaps the fish buyers could raise the prices they are willing to pay for cod, and the bank that mortgaged the boat for alaska leader could wait a few months longer between payments? Then Alaska leader wouldn’t have to ask for the money that they are owed per a contract.
take a look at fish prices at the time the keel was laid and compare them to today’s and see if your opinion is the same. Maybe Alaska leader could afford to wait for their money and maybe not, but if martinac can’t pay their other debts, the writing is on the wall. They wanted their money from martinac before everyone else wanted theirs too. Martinac was going down either way.
this is what Workboat has to say
Bruce Buls July 22, 2014
It’s not uncommon for shipyards to struggle. The sectors you build for cycle down. You bid some jobs too low and have to suck up the difference, perhaps by borrowing. You get into contract wrangles and end up in court. You get hit with hurricanes and floods. You have bad luck. You mismanage.
For many years, the fortunes at J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding in Tacoma, Wash., have waxed and waned. Back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, the yard employed up to 350 workers while building a very successful series of tuna seiners. Then that bubble deflated.
For several years in the early 2000s, the yard didn’t land a single newbuild contact but managed to keep the doors open. Then Martinac started getting tug orders. Starting in 2007, they built a couple offshore linehaul tugs for Sause Bros. in Oregon followed by a steady stream of Robert Allan-designed Z-drive tugs, including a series for the Navy.
The tug work also dried up, but the yard landed the contract for the construction of a high-tech fishing boat for Alaska Leader Fisheries, during which, according to newspaper accounts, the yard had to borrow money from the fishing company to finish the project. But with no other contracts and potential customers leery of the yard’s financial stability — and no money to repay the debt — there was probably no choice but to lock the gates and turn off the lights.
The shipyard was sold at foreclosure auction last Friday. The sole bidder, Washington Landmark Holdings, bought the yard for slightly over $6 million, which is the exact amount owed by Martinac, according to the Tacoma News Tribune. Washington Landmark Holdings is not a known company in Washington, let alone a known boatbuilder.
With a history that goes back to 1924, J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding employed thousands of boatbuilders over the years and built hundreds of high-quality wood and steel vessels. It was a union shop with loyal employees. It was a fixture on the Thea Foss Waterway in downtown Tacoma.
It will be missed.f
I don’t why but to me this is really sad news…Martinac was a survivor when there were few. So many old Tacoma builders have turned to dust over the decades. Tacoma Boat, Western, Pacific, Martinolich, Birchfield Boiler, to name just a few all quietly disappeared over the years but Martinac was one that could still build a good boat. Better than the likes of Nichols Bros but not as good as Dakota Creek. They just made too many bad business decisions and without a drydock could not bid on many of the repair/overhaul jobs out there. They made the wrong moves and now they too are done…
I am sad tonight…
There are a lot of tugs being built guess they just were not competitive enough to get the work. Truly sad indeed.
[QUOTE=Tups;139712]I was the one complaining about the inability of producing double-curvature plates. While an American shipyard that specializes in the construction of smaller vessels (260’ x 48’) may have the sufficient facilities for making “nice” hull forms, finding one that can do it in larger scale in a reasonable time and at a reasonable price is still rather difficult…
To me, closing a shipyard is always sad news as in this day and age it is unlikely that anyone would build such facilities again due to environmental regulations etc. in the West. Some time ago, there was a danger that one of our major shipyards would be closed, putting an end to a 300-year-old shipbuilding tradition in that particular town. Fortunately a smaller shipbuilding company leased the shipyard (which had been sold “as is, where is, with whatever you can find there” to the town) and now attempts to re-start shipbuilding with a new joint venture using a slightly different approach (lightweight project-based organization to reduce administrative costs). In the future, the new company might merge with its “parent company”, at which point they might have to consider changing their name. After all, if your dry dock is 850’ by 280’, having “workboat” in your name might be slightly misleading…
Anyway, since our office is built at the edge of the largest dry dock ever built in this country (1,250’) that has been permanently separated from the sea due to the expansion of the harbor, I am constantly reminded by the fact that if any kind heavy industry is “demolished” today, it will never be rebuilt because it’s always cheaper to build such facilities in China. Of course, this does not apply to the US due to Jones Act which guarantees that there must always be domestic shipbuilding capacity.[/QUOTE]
Good post.
I’m guessing it was nearly thirty years ago these full page ads were run in Marine Engineering/Log and Maritime Reporter picturing a very large floating dry dock behind glass, as if placed in a fire alarm pull. The glass reading “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS”
Below the image the caption; “If Only It Were This Easy.”
It was an advert that him very close to home. My dad toiled in the big Beth Steel yard at Sparrows Point and after some 25 years of building ships (including at the time, the largest ships ever constructed in the western hemisphere) he was out in practically the prime of his career.
Growing up on Baltimore harbor, I watched all of the big yards go down one by one.
Sparrows Point.
Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock
Beth Steel’s repair yards at Key Highway and Fort McHenry.
At the time, little did I know how it would change the face of tug boating in the harbor and effect my chosen career.
Wish I still had a copy of that ad.
That bring to mind this gem:
Because no one in government at any level from city council to MARAD has the least bit of interest in maritime progress or American jobs, this kind of crime is accepted as the normal course of business.
Well at least Grand Bahama fixed us up on time, on budget and away we went …so I guess it went to good use in the end. Wish it was in the USA but it ain’t.
[QUOTE=c.captain;139699]you realize of course that seiner was built more than 40 years ago?[/QUOTE]
I worked on that boat in the south Pacific for 4 trips. GREAT boat and you would never know it was that old. Impecably maintained by the family and I got to meet Mr. Joe also. We caught ALOT of Tuna also. Too bad I had to leave. Hope it’s still out there, it was an honor.
[QUOTE=jbunnell;147055]I worked on that boat in the south Pacific for 4 trips. GREAT boat and you would never know it was that old. Impecably maintained by the family and I got to meet Mr. Joe also. We caught ALOT of Tuna also. Too bad I had to leave. Hope it’s still out there, it was an honor.[/QUOTE]
I looked at the register of ships built by Martinak and the JM Martinac is not on there…strange as it is the flagship of the Martinac fleet and the best one out there…