Alaska Tankers Keep Coming to Cascade General

With eight tanker visits to the Portland Shipyard in the third quarter, and an equal number of voyage repairs in the Puget Sound area, Cascade General is maintaining its strong connection with the Alaskan oil trade. The tankers' operators included regular customers like SeaRiver Maritime, Polar Tankers, Chevron, and OSG, and newer names like SeaBulk and Sabine Transportation. The ships ranged in size from the 538-foot Overseas Harriet for dockside work to the 810-foot, 16,200-ton Prudhoe Bay for drydocking.

Following the successful overhaul of the 658-foot SeaRiver Puget Sound this summer, her sister ship, the SeaRiver Galena Bay arrived in October with an extensive list of upgrades and maintenance items. The program commenced with a drydocking for ABS survey, spot blast and sea valve overhaul, while the entire after peak was blasted and coated. Work continued dockside with the installation of a new deck house and TeamTec incinerator, deck reinforcement to support new davits, and a pair of Norsafe, 32-person enclosed lifeboats. A Valdez towing bitt was added to the stern deck and all main deck piping and valves tested and repaired where necessary.

In addition to the tankers, Cascade General drydocked the 171-foot NOAA fisheries research ship David Starr Jordan for repairs to the line shaft bearing and propeller seals. This was followed by the Army Corps of Engineers 350-foot dredge Essayons, for blasting and coating the well decks and drag-arm davits and the 142-foot General Construction derrick barge Columbia, for a hull plate insert and re-certification by the Coast Guard.

A busy quarter for the company's Puget Sound operations included voyage repairs at the permanent facility in Port Angeles, and mobile repairs in Anacortes and Bellingham.

A notable customer was the Millennium-class tanker Polar Endeavor, the first double-hulled ship built to comply with OPA 90. A Cascade General crew replaced pumps and piping serving the new ship's auxiliary boilers.

"This had been a difficult time for every sector of the American economy," said Cascade General director of sales and marketing Terri Deskins. "Despite the uncertainties, we have succeeded in expanding our customer base, and have seen a steady flow of work this quarter. We are optimistic that this will continue into the New Year."

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Wide Variety Of Repairs Keep Cascade General Busy In 2001

Cascade General operates Portland Shipyard, the largest and most complete ship repair and industrial facility on the West Coast of the United States. We provide full-service repairs and conversions for tankers, cruise ships, bulk carriers, container ships, government vessels, tugs, barges and workboats. Cascade General's Portland facility includes a 60-acre (24.2 ha) yard, 550,000 square feet (51,096 square meters) of craft shops, more than 7,600 ft. (2,326 meters) of full-service repair berths, and two floating dry docks.