OVERSEAS MARTINEZ, A 600-foot petroleum products carrier, is moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ T-Pier.
Straits Marine and Industrial on Marine Drive has personnel aboard making piping modifications and performing routine maintenance in the engine room.
The diesel-powered tanker has a 105-foot beam and can move nearly 14 million gallons of refined product through the water at about 14 knots.
The ship, which was launched last April, was the ninth of 12 Veteran Class MT-46 tankers being built by Aker Philadelphia Shipyard and 13th overall to be built by Aker on the grounds of the former site of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
The final three ships in the series will be completed by July of this year. Sadly, that could sound the death knell for the shipyard.
With the slowdown in the economy, the shipyard has no backlog of orders — which will ultimately force it to shut down.
The survival of the enterprise currently depends upon a plan that is afoot for the state of Pennsylvania to help provide funding that, coupled with private financing, would enable Aker to build two tankers on speculation that would be sold at a later date to a qualified buyer.
Such a plan would keep the shipyard’s work force employed and give the company additional time to weather the economic storm that has roiled the nation for the last couple of years.
Next door, at the port’s Terminal 1 North, another tanker, Sierra, moored last Tuesday.
Washington Marine Repair, the topside repair facility on the waterfront, has personnel onboard fabricating saltwater strainers.
According to Chandra “Hollywood” McGoff, personnel also are making deck repairs and repairing the anchor windlass on the 831-foot tanker.
Island Tug and Barge of Seattle has a barge moored stern to Terminal 1 just forward of the ship’s bow, where personnel stowed four shots of the starboard side anchor chain and a new anchor while repairs were being made to the windlass.
The SeaRiver Maritime-owned vessel formerly named Kenai lost her starboard anchor and about 1,200 feet of anchor chain after leaving Valdez, Alaska.
Navy camels
Platypus Marine in Port Angeles last week was awarded a government contract to assemble four barge camels that will be used by the Navy in Bremerton.
A camel is maritime lingo for a float.
In this case, the floats will be 60 feet long by 17 feet wide and have an undercarriage resembling a maze of pipes that extends 20 feet into the water to help stabilize the platform.
The camels will be built by Maritime Industries in Broussard, La., and shipped by truck to Platypus Marine.
The deck of each float will be shipped in one piece and the undercarriages, which consist of three pieces, will require a like number of trucks for shipment.
When the pieces arrive at Platypus Marine’s facility, they will be offloaded by Jay Ketchum of Affordable Crane, which will also work with the manufacturer’s assembly team to put the four pieces of each 57-ton float together.
According to Charlie Crane, director of sales and marketing for Platypus Marine, assembling the four barge camels should take about 10 days.
Charlie said once they are all assembled, Joe Manke of Manke Tug and Barge of Tacoma will tow them en bloc to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
There in Bremerton, they will be used for various tasks, including platforms from which to perform maintenance and (no doubt) by aspiring boatswain’s mates to learn the finer points of painting the side of a ship.
Waterfront notes
— Alaskan Legend, a 941-foot crude oil tanker, was anchored in Port Angeles for most of Thursday.
The tug, Scout, brought a load of fuel to her from the ConocoPhillips refinery in Ferndale.
By late afternoon, the refueling process was complete, and by 6 p.m. the tanker was underway for Valdez, Alaska, for another 50 million-plus gallons of crude oil.
— Dunlap Towing, the company that handles the waterborne log storage at the east end of Port Angeles Harbor, had two divers in the water last week at its boom grounds.
I understand they were inspecting the chains and anchoring system that is attached to the buoys that Dunlap uses to tether their log booms.
— The North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron will hold its monthly meeting on Monday at the Cedars at Dungeness Golf Club, 1965 Woodcock Road northwest of Sequim.
There will be a social hour at 5 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Anyone interested in boating is invited to attend.
Dinner is $19 and reservations may be made by phoning Deta Stem at 360-684-9444.
— Beginning Tuesday and for the next 10 weeks, the North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron is conducting a seminar on piloting.
This detailed course explores coastal and inland navigation, chart reading and the use of GPS.
The two hour course will be held in the recreation room at the Rainbow RV Park in Sequim and begin promptly at 1:30 p.m.
The course fee is $48 for members and $95 for non-members.
For further information or to make reservations, phone Mark Lewis at 360-683 9479.
Fueling up
On Monday, Tesoro Petroleum provided bunkers to Overseas Long Beach and then the 600-foot petroleum products tanker got under way for her namesake port.
Tesoro on Wednesday refueled the 600-foot Overseas Nikiski and she is due in Valdez, Alaska, early Monday morning.
On Thursday, Tesoro bunkered IVS Kestrel, a 580-foot bulk cargo ship bound for Portland, Ore.
Then Friday, Tesoro bunkered Expander, a 620-foot, Panamanian-flagged bulk cargo ship.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
E-mail dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
