4 APRIL 2018 • FOGHORN Building a Stronger Industry, One Passenger Vessel at a Time It’s early spring and we are laying out our 2018 plans for annual shipyard repair work on the Upper Mississippi River. Unfortunately, we have a three-week window at the beginning of the season and about the same at season’s end. So begins the internal debate of what to repair and when, will the dry-dock be available, or will we have to incur the added expense of moving a vessel downstream to find dock availability? We have major concerns with the upcoming imple- mentation of the Coast Guard’s Subchapter M regulations for towing vessels. How will it impact dry-dock sched- uling and availability in the frozen tundra of Minnesota? The quick answer is that we don’t know. We don’t know if the shipyard will have availability and we don’t know whether the U.S. Coast Guard will have the resources available when our narrow window is open. We do know that more than 5,000 towing vessels will be coming into the inspected fleet over the next four years. This means increased demand for dry-dock and repair services and the yet-to-be-known demand on Coast Guard resources as many towing companies are still engaged in the decision making process of whether to use the Coast Guard inspection option or an approved third party organization coupled with a Towing Safety Management System (TSMS). Today, the Port of Saint Paul, MN has only one remaining shipyard with the next closest option being 150 miles downstream past Lake Pepin.As of March 15, Lake Pepin has an ice depth of 30 inches; it may be early April before navigation to Saint Paul begins. Fortunately for us, the shipyards in our area are repair yards so we don’t have the added dimension of new con- struction to factor in. The last full service shipyard in Saint Paul was Twin City Shipyard. Twin City Shipyard was established by Twin City Barge & Towing in 1965.  They started off building towboats, but in 1972 expanded the facility to allow assembly-line construction of inland barges. The assembly-line approach to barge building allowed them the efficiency needed to build 56 barges in 1976, more than a barge a week. Due to changes in the grain market and the federal tax code that had made barges and railroad cars attractive in- vestments as tax shelters, Twin City Shipyard completed their last of 895 vessels in 1986. Our newest vessel, the Anson Northrup was built in 1988 at Leevac shipyard in Jennings, LA. At the time, our marine architect was still submitting hand-drawn blueprints that the yard’s computer wizards would transfer to a CAD program. From there, the steel sheets were laid out on the comput- erized plasma cutter and a boat was built. All of this technology made it possible for us to build a 300-passenger K boat in eight months. I am constantly amazed with technological advances in modern shipbuilding that has occurred over the past 30 years. Today we hear terms like robotics, 3D printers, and sensors in shipbuilding discussions along with LNG pro- pulsion, autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels, intelligent systems, and battery technology all discussed as not only emerging technologies, but tech- nology that is in use as we speak. PVA has manyAssociate member shipyards, marine ar- chitects, engine and control manufacturers and marine suppliers who make their living doing a wonderful job of keeping up with the rapid advancement in design and build technology. I am excited to watch the transformation of shipbuilding and vessel design over the next few years. Thank you, Gus Guspardo President n LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Gus Guspardo Don’t Miss the PVA Congressional Fly-In May 8, 2018 Sheraton Suites Old Town Alexandria Alexandria, VA Join PVA on Tuesday, May 8th on Capitol Hill in Washington DC to participate in its Annual Congressional Fly-In. Teams of PVA Members and staff will meet directly with Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and their key staff. Join PVA and talk directly with lawmakers discussing the issues that matter most to you and your business. Register Now: www.passengervessel.com/SitePages/ congressional-fly-in.html Or, contact PVA’s Legislative Director Ed Welch at 1-800-807-8360, ext. 27, or ewelch@passengervessel.com. “We have major concerns with the upcoming implementation of Subchapter M. We know that more than 5,000 towing vessels will be coming into the inspected fleet over the next four years.”