Captive?
yes lol
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Been seeing a lot of ECO boats back in action around Port Fourchon lately, and the amount of stacked vessels seem to be slowly decreasing, and they keep posting ads looking for deck and engine personnel. Have they began returning benefits and increasing pay yet, or is the company still staying silent? They undoubtedly have far more work than Harvey, Hornbeck, Candies, etc. seems like itâs just a matter of time before they have to do somethingâŚ
There was a story, and maybe thatâs all it is, that Gary went to Florida to order a new yacht. When they told him there was a two year waiting list, he said no there isnât. He bought the yard and they built his yacht next. And suddenly, he was in the yacht building business. No idea whether that story is true or not. But it makes a good story.
I remember seeing press coverage whe he bought Westport, but I donât remember what it said. My guess is that Westport was a synergistic expansion of his existing yacht building business. Or Maybe he wanted a West[ort and had to buy the yard in order to be next. No idea.
I really doubt that Westport is expanding to support Chouest commercial vessels. Instead, Iâd bet that the large yacht business is just pretty good right now.
Sounds like the story of tractor manufacturer Lamborghini. He wanted a Ferrari and the old man wouldnât sell him one, said it was too sophisticated for him. âIzzat so?â sez he (in Italian, of course) and you know the rest.
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That story was about the American Custom Yachts purchase from what I understand.
Guys this is very similar to what I heard when I was back on the old Dino. They were actually in a fishing tournament and he needed some repair work done and he went to the yard and they told him there was a large waiting list. He insisted I donât care just go ahead and move me to the beginning of the line money is not an object. Again the manager refused him. The next day he went back to the yard approach the same manager and said get started on my boat. When the manager confronted the owner, whom had been the owner up to this point told him this man bought the yard.
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However if you want to talk about stories one of my favorites was when the Laney was brought out. As they were going through Lafitte, there was a tail boat following the Laney out as she was being dragged through the bayous and towards Grand Isle.
So the guy following the Laney out is stopping at all these piers and finding the people who had their vessels or property damaged to give them mr. Garyâs phone number. As these people would call they would have a conversation with him and make a deal on how large of a check to write. He would then tell one of the other guys in the bridge to go ahead and write out a check to this person for this much. However as this had been going on and heâs writing checks for all these people there was one individual who actually cranked up his vessel and moved it away from the pier and pulled it aside and out of the way. As mr. Gary is looking out the window of the Laney watching how this guy had actually cranked up and moved out of the way he commented to his tail boat said go find that man tell him to call me thatâs the kind of man I donât mind giving money to. So he paid him just for getting out of his way.
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Viking Cruises moves ahead with U.S. expansion plans
Though from reading the article, it looks like the ECO media contact missed the memo on this one.
yes that bit surprises me, but we all know that Mister Garyâs tentacles are spreading all through the industry! I had heard that this was close to being an inked deal a long time ago and not surprised at the news however I was under the impression that the sticking point was who was going to manage the vessels? ECO wanted to have full management and manning of the marine crew but Viking was dubious that ECO could provide what Viking sought. So now the question is what (if anything) was signed between the two?
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Did not see this coming.
I was on the Laney in the bridge (in 2003) with Mr.Gary. Wheel wash from the tugs damaged a few boats and Mr.Gary sent the boat (which brought his clothes/mail because he decided to stay on the Laney for the transit) to take care of any damage, if any. That happened once. That is pretty much the extent of that story line. What impressed me is that he stopped the entire operation early in the morning and made sure all the school buses ran before passing through the Lafitte bridge as not to cause any impact. And I can tell you, not one person was thinking that way, but he was.
With all of the animosity that you hear at times, a long with some bloated stories, I doubt many have held a 2 second conversation with the man.
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Guessing theyâll have their fingers in the Aeolus X-bows too?
As part owner of Island Offshore ECO may soon be able to say that they have the worldâs most powerful towing vessel (>400 m.t. BP) at their disposal.
The hull for Island Victory is now finally on the way to Norway for final outfitting, after being delayed for several years due to the market situation. (She has got acontract in the North Sea commencing July, 2019:
Being prepared for tow from Romania:
Under way:
J.E. was telling me about the trip. Guess he forgot to mention the school bus part. Really cool add in.
Ocean Infinity of recent ARA San Juan and MH 370 fame has taken a vessel belonging to the partly ECO owned Island Offshore on 7 year charter for their expanding activity:
https://oceaninfinity.com/ocean-infinity-charter-island-pride/
Island Pride specs:
https://www.islandoffshore.com/fleet/fleet-overview/scv/island-pride
She has been working in GoM for Oceaneering earlier, but not sure if ECO will have any involvement in management or crewing during this contract (??)
PS> She is presently in Port Fourchon:
I would expect that one to still be NIS and Norwegian manned as the ownership of that particular vessel was majority Morten Ulstein. Although ECO and Island Offshore will on occasion change this distribution depending on local requirement implications.
She is Bahamas registered at the moment, but there are likely to be some Norwegian on board as long as she is managed from Ulsteinvik.
Even if she was in NIS the crew and officers COULD be foreign (incl. the Master, if given a dispensation by NMA) They would require Norwegian CeC and other qualifications/training as required by NMA. (NOR flag is different)
Pride is still Norge operated. The only four Island boats Chouest crews are Enforcer, Performer, Intervention, and Venture.
I sure do miss working on those construction vessels, just not the compensation.
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