From January 2000 issue of Marine Digest
Two BIG plans at TOTE
By Peter Hurme
Home window air conditioners, home air conditioner.
What may end up being the biggest U.S. shipbuilding story
in 2000 broke in late 1999. Seattle-based Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) has ordered 839-foot, twin-screw, diesel electric-propelled, 600-FEU Ro/Ro ships, termed the Orca class,
to operate in the Pacific Northwest to Alaska trade. The vessels
will be built by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO),\ San Diego, Calif. Construction is slated to begin
in April of 2001.
Marine Digest sat down at TOTE's operations base in Tacoma, with president and CEO, Robert P. Magee; vice president, ship construction, John Boylston (working on his 99th and 100th vessels and an innovator with Sea-Land's container ship designs), and director of technical services, ship construction, Rand Lymangrover to talk about the vision and design of the first, new-construction ships of this type to be built on American soil since TOTE's current three ships were built over 25 years ago.
"TOTE's existing ships, because they were built in the1970s with the existing technology of the time, are becoming economically obsolete," said Magee. "With the new technology and competitiveness of American shipyards, there was a good window of opportunity." Regarding the $300 million pricetag for both ships, Magee said, "From my perspective, this type of ship would cost a lot of money no matter where it was built. We're talking two-off ships. Twenty percent of the cost is one-time-off engineering, with a tremendous number of features built in for Alaska. More than 10 percent of the design is Alaska-specific rather than some foreign assembly-line, cookie-cutter version."
Magee commented on Jones Act changes, "Fifteen to 20 years ago we would have had to use U.S. equipment. Now, [with these ships], a lot of the guts are foreign." |
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