Boatnerd Discussion Forum

I wonder what this means for ULS, they seem to have dithered again on their shipbuilding, with Algoma continuing to add to the SMT fleet and ULS loosing more and more ships to scrap, one must wonder if this will be the end of SMT & ULS and will be just Algoma ?

From what I have heard, the 3 self unoaders will have their boom mounted on the bow. Can anyone confirm this?

If they asked for Canadian bids - who would bid? There is no eastern Canadian shipyard presently able to build such a ship.
Port Weller is physically large enough, but is not entertaining new construction.
Davieship is in creditor protection, and not bidding.
No east coast yard is large enough to build a laker, even in pieces. Besides they all want the navy and CCG work that is coming and do not want to be tied down to commercial shipbuilding with fixed prices.

Has anyone heard about the economics of this deal? Would be interesting to see the bid prices compared to domestic (if there was any tender offered for bid)

Guest wrote:
Given that these boats will be for Great Lakes/Seaway service, it's unlikely that their design would be similar to that of an oceangoing vessel.

Considering that these new Chinadian lakers will need to travel halfway around the world to get here, I imagine they will be built to ocean-going specs and Seaway dimensions, much like the rebuilt Algobay and new Canadian Mariner. I believe this is also true of the Polsteam vessels.

J Kerwin wrote:The yard in China that Algoma has contracted for the 4 new builds is the same yard that built the Polsteam saltie Miedwie (and I believe is or has built 7 other sister ships to Miedwie). Has Algoma designed their own ships or are the new ships going to be similar in design to the Polsteam vessels?

Given that these boats will be for Great Lakes/Seaway service, it's unlikely that their design would be similar to that of an oceangoing vessel.

The yard in China that Algoma has contracted for the 4 new builds is the same yard that built the Polsteam saltie Miedwie (and I believe is or has built 7 other sister ships to Miedwie). Has Algoma designed their own ships or are the new ships going to be similar in design to the Polsteam vessels?