Work Boat World

OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS: "The only party seeming willing to hold the company accountable is the public prosecutor in Batam who has placed seven ASL managers and supervisors in detention in Indonesia as per local news coverage. Again, in any normal company listed elsewhere in a major stock market, the news that seven staff were in detention for breaching Article 359 of the Indonesian Criminal Code concerning negligence causing death, Article 360 of the Criminal Code concerning negligence causing injury, and/or Law Number One of 1970 concerning Occupational Safety might warrant a stock exchange disclosure. Six have been transferred to prison in May. "But the silence is endemic. A stranger thing, too? "The Straits Times, Singapore’s leading news publication, did not cover the detentions, either. Credit to Channel News Asia, which ran a great 22-minute video about safety in Singapore’s marine industry titled 'Safety by Choice, not by Chance' highlighting that there was only one fatality in the marine industry in Singapore in 2025, down from five in 2024. So, in its one shipyard in Batam, ASL had a fatality rate nineteen times higher than the entire marine industry in the whole of Singapore last year. If safety is a choice, as Channel News Asia claimed, then ASL Marine has made some bad choices." https://bit.ly/3ScIDzD

VESSEL REVIEW: Chinese shipbuilder Dajin Heavy Industry recently completed construction of a new heavy lift vessel to be operated by its Dajin Shipping business unit. 'King One' is the first in a new series of heavy lift vessels to be purpose-built by Dajin Heavy Industry to add to its owned fleet of ships. 'King Two', the second ship in the series, was launched in April 2026 while the third ship will follow before the end of this month. All three heavy lift vessels were designed to be adaptable to overseas transportation requirements for 15MW to 25MW wind turbine generator monopiles, jackets, floating foundations, and large-scale offshore engineering modules. Bureau Veritas • Dajin Heavy Industry Co.,Ltd • Synergy Marine Group https://bit.ly/4fPWVA2

AFT LINES: "If we look at the more recent offerings with what appears to be an statement of requirements (SOR) of operating for several days, up to 400 nautical miles offshore, looking beyond the headlines citing average speeds of four knots, the purpose of a step seems somewhat pointless. But with the added mix of sprint speeds of up to 50 knots, this brings into question the rationale behind such a vessel. "For context, 50 knots on a five-metre vessel is an extremely high Froude number/Taylor quotient requiring significant hp/ton, since the two design objectives that the vessel needs to satisfy are poles apart. Going four knots in a five-metre or even slightly larger vessel is considerably different from 50 knots. "The naval architecture and the hydrodynamics between these two design objectives could not be further apart. For example, the simple fact of where to place the LCG for slow speed is at variance with high speed, and vice-versa, not to mention going 50 knots on a five-metre vessel can result in anything that is post 12g accelerations with large vertical displacements at the bow. Shock loading on equipment therefore also becomes critical." https://lnkd.in/gu2urFVy

VESSEL REVIEW: China’s Jianglong Shipbuilding has delivered a new electric sightseeing vessel to local operator Guangzhou Public Transport Group Passenger Ferry. 'Buyehou' (不夜侯) will be operated in the Greater Bay Area that sits between Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macau. The newbuild has a length of 43.23 metres (141.8 feet) and a capacity of 430 passengers across three decks. The main and upper decks have floor-to-ceiling windows to provide unobstructed views of the outside while the top deck is an open-air viewing area that doubles as an events venue during nighttime voyages. Jianglong Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd https://lnkd.in/grZk4QZX

VESSEL REVIEW: Russia's Onega Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant has handed over two new oil skimmers in a series ordered by local port operator Rosmorport. 'Eco-I' ('Эко-1') and 'Swan' ('Лебедь'; 'Lebed') belongs to the Project NE028 series of oil skimmers designed for operation in port, inland and coastal waters, even in surface ice up to 0.4 metres (1.3 feet) thick. Design work on the vessels was undertaken by Nordic Engineering. https://lnkd.in/gEwWQ7a2

OBITUARY: The elder Solstad had spent his entire life in shipping, including serving as a ship captain with the Norwegian America Line and as a superintendent for the Scandinavian East-Africa Line, based on Madagascar Island, before he established Solstad Rederi in 1964. "At the age of 34, he founded Solstad Rederi, and has been a pioneer in offshore shipping since the beginning of the Norwegian oil adventure," Lars Peder Solstad wrote about his father. Offshore vessels and seafarers had remained Johannes Solstad's main interest, and he was still receiving market updates several times a week, Solstad Offshore said in a social media post on Mr Solstad's 95th birthday on August 4, 2025. https://lnkd.in/gNFWAhws

VESSEL REVIEW: The Russian Navy recently commissioned a new stealth warship into service. 'Burya' (Буря; "Storm") is the latest example of the Project 22800 or Karakurt-class corvettes, which were developed as “blue water” capable complements to the Russian Navy’s littoral zone-optimised Buyan-M-class corvettes. The Project 22800 ships were also built to serve as more affordable alternatives to the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates. https://lnkd.in/gbiaeJgC

VESSEL REVIEW: The US Coast Guard recently began operating an icebreaker that has been converted from an Arctic-capable anchor handling and oil exploration vessel previously used in the offshore energy industry. USCGC 'Storis' is the former 'Aiviq', which, at the time of her acquisition by the coast guard in late 2024, had been operated by Edison Chouest Offshore and was the only US-built commercial vessel that met necessary icebreaking standards. The vessel was acquired by the coast guard to provide near-term operational presence as a bridging strategy while the service’s new polar security cutters are under construction. American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) • U.S. Coast Guard • Cat Marine • SCHOTTEL https://lnkd.in/gGjJY6PW

OPINION: "The global offshore support vessel (OSV) market posted modest but meaningful improvement in 2025. Demand days increased by two per cent year-on-year, lifting marketed utilisation to an average of 76 per cent. Westwood’s MarineLogix data underscored a steadily tightening market, particularly when viewed against the backdrop of a maturing fleet. "More than half of the operational OSV fleet is now over 15 years old. Nevertheless, the operational fleet expanded slightly in late 2025 to 3,209 units due to newbuild deliveries, while the laid-up fleet declined marginally. The net reactivation of only two vessels highlights a key theme: utilisation is improving not because of aggressive reactivation or scrapping cycles, but because accessible and commercially viable supply is increasingly limited. "Looking ahead, marketed utilisation is forecast to rise to 77 per cent in 2026 and exceed 79 per cent in 2027. With the OSV orderbook standing at 216 vessels – mostly AHTS vessels and PSVs – incremental supply growth remains manageable. In essence, incremental demand growth is translating more directly into utilisation upside than at any point in the past decade." https://lnkd.in/dttQdpRT

VESSEL REVIEW: Karmol, the joint venture company formed by Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines and Turkish floating power specialist Karpowership, recently welcomed a converted floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to its fleet of power generation platforms. The conversion works on the FSRU 'Karmol LNGT Powership Antarctica' were undertaken by Singapore shipbuilder Seatrium and is the fourth FSRU conversion project to be completed by Seatrium for the same owner. The ship was originally built in 1989 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as an LNG carrier that had operated under the name 'Northwest Sanderling'. Bureau Veritas • KARMOL • Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. • Karpowership • Seatrium https://lnkd.in/dnHetWuU