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12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • SEPTEMBER 2014 NEWS Serving the Galveston, Houston and Texas Gulf Coast area, Malin International Ship Repair & Drydock is a full service topside repair facility ready to handle your scheduled or emergency repairs. s ! L L T Y P E S O F 2 I G S 3 U B S E A # O N S T R U C T I O N A N D / F F S H O R E S P E C I A L T Y V E S S E L S 4 A N K E R S A N D # A R G O 3 H I P S s ' / - / F F S H O R E 2 E P A I R 2 I D I N G 4 R A V E L L I N G # R E W S s & U L L S E R V I C E M A C H I N E S H O P 3 & & A B R I C A T I O N 3 H O P s / V E R F E E T O F 7 E T " E R T H S P A C E A T T H E P I E R V igor’s new fl oating drydock, the Vigorous, was headed for Portland at press time, fi nal destination being Vigor Industrial’s Portland shipyard on the Willamette River. Fully assembled, the drydock will be 960-ft. long. However, it is cur- rently in three parts, which are stacked aboard a 738-foot heavy lift ship for delivery. The delivery provides unique opportunities to see both the new dry- dock and the specialized ship carrying it up river Vigor said it is investing more than $50 million to build and deliver the Vigorous. The drydock will allow Vigor to service vessels such as cruise ships, tankers and cargo ships. It also will free the company to send another drydock from Portland to Seattle, ex- panding capacity there. Frank Foti, Vigor CEO, said the new drydock will allow the company to better serve a range of customers with large vessels at a time when total large- drydock capacity on the West Coast has been shrinking. Two large vessels, Maritime Administration cargo ships, are already booked for repairs when the drydock enters service in Novem- ber. Vigorous is about the same size as the drydock Foti sold in 2001 in order to repay millions of dollars that the company owed lenders. The sale of the shipyard’s largest asset led some to speculate it was the end of shipbuild- ing in Portland. However, since then the company has grown from the single shipyard to nine locations from Port- land to Seward, Alaska. The workforce in Portland shipyard has expanded from fewer than 80 workers in the late 1990s to more than 600 today. Vigor’s overall workforce now includes more than 2,000 people. The drydock was constructed by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries in Jiangsu Province, China, and is being delivered to Portland aboard the Blue Marlin, a semi-submersible heavy lift ship owned by Dockwise Ltd. When the Blue Marlin arrives at the mouth of the Columbia, the ship will be guided over the Columbia River Bar by the Columbia River Bar Pilots. Once past the bar, the ship will be transferred to the Columbia River Pilots for the trip up river to Portland. New Drydock for Portland Submarine North Dakota The U.S.’s newest nuclear-powered at- tack submarine, North Dakota (SSN- 784), returned to the General Dynam- ics Electric Boat shipyard following the successful completion of its fi rst voyage in open seas. North Dakota is the 11th ship of the Virginia Class. North Dakota’s alpha sea trials included a range of sub- marine and propulsion-plant operations, submerging for the fi rst time, and high- speed runs on and below the surface to demonstrate that the ship’s propulsion plant is fully mission-capable. Virginia-class submarines displace 7,800 tons, with a hull length of 377 feet and a diameter of 34 feet. They are capable of speeds in excess of 25 knots and can dive to a depth greater than 800 feet, while carrying Mark 48 advanced capability torpedoes and Tomahawk land-attack missiles. VESSELS (Photo cour tesy of General Dynamics Electric Boat) MR #9 (10-17).indd 12 9/5/2014 9:00:53 AM
