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Imagine cruising the harbor in this
By adamg on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 2:38pm
The Boston Fire Department reports it's just signed a contract for a wicked fast new fireboat. The $4.2-million aluminum John S. Damrell (named after the fire department's chief engineer during the Great Fire of 1872) will be able to pump 12,000 gallons of water per minute - when it's not racing somewhere at speeds of up to 35 knots (40 m.p.h.).
The 69-foot Damrell is also designed to respond to biological, chemical and even radioactive attacks, according to the department. It's being built by Metalcraft Marine, Inc. of Kingston, Ont., and is expected in Boston Harbor in August, 2011.
About half the money for the boat comes from federal stimulus funds; the rest from the city. The Damrell will replace a boat in service since 1972.
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Comments
Oh Canada!
What a great place to send our tax dollars. So yachts get made in NZ and fire boats in Canada - doesn't this country make ANYTHING anymore? I'm all for free trade - but you'd think we could compete making a high end product like that! How exactly does buying a Canadian boat stimulate OUR economy?
subcontractors
You can be sure that a fair chunk of the kit inside the boat will be manufactured right inside the US.
So, you willing to shell out
So, you willing to shell out more money / raise tax dollars as long as we buy American? Thats a valid debate to have, but not when someone is coming from the viewpoint that taxes are evil and we need to cut them as much as possible. (not suggesting that's your viewpoint, but it's been drilled into many peoples heads)
Personally, I'd love to see the report stating it's uses and why Boston needs this. Last thing we need is a new toy for the fire dept. but it was was needed and the uses warranted, then have at it. Transparency in these requests is key IMO.
Open, competitive bidding
Steve MacDonald at BFD e-mails:
He adds:
just surprised
Re. the "he adds" - if all we have is a 38 year old boat - we may indeed need the new boat - Lord knows we've had issues with FD equipment!
I don't deny the Canadians are qualified and sounds like their bid won fair and square. I'm just surprised that we don't have a facility here in the US - esp. ME or RI - that can't build this thing at a competitive price - US subcontractors or no. Both ME and RI have shipbuilding industries (although perhaps not in that specialty) and considering all the places that buy these things, sounds like there's a decent market for the product - both here and abroad.
You can add...
Virginia and Alabama/Louisiana/Texas to that list. The problem is that a large number of ship yards have folded because of foreign competition. Heavy industry was hit quite hard by globalization long before our current recession.
Korea I get - but Australia and Canada?
Sounds from other posts like there is an opportunity in aluminum boat construction that we are not taking advantage of - I can see losing out to Korea/China etc. - but Australia and Canada should have pretty similar wage rates so surprised that we can't compete with them.
Market and Infrastructure
Australia and NZ have extensive commuter ferry services, so they build primarily for their own markets and, possibly, Indonesia and the Phillipines. Canada uses a lot of water transport in the Maritimes, Great Lakes, St. Lawrence and Vancouver Island.
The United States really turned its back on its waterways, and now that the roadways have become choked the ferry concept is making a slow comeback. Canada kept boats on the water for moving people and fighting fires and retained the specialized capacity for such items as ferries and fireboats.
The US market for such transports is pretty limited. There are the NYC ferries and the WSDOT ferry system in Northern Washington state and a couple in SFO and that's about all I can think of right now.
US market for ferries
There used to be lots of car ferries across Lake Michigan, and it seems logical to have them so that people don't have to drive through Chicago on the way from Michigan to points west. Yet almost all of these services have ended.
A bunch of ferry services exist further north and south along the East Coast, across Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay and to serve various chains of barrier islands.
The LNG terminal is scary.
The LNG terminal is scary. At least, if it ever blows, I and a few hundred thousand other Bostonians will only have to suffer the knowledge briefly before we have no more problems.
I suggest you Google
"Buy America Provisions" (with the quotes). As the fireboat is being purchased with Federal monies, it's highly likely these provisions apply to the procurement contract.
Aluminum hulls
I'm not sure how many builders there are in the USA that make aluminum hulls like this. Alu hulls just don't seem as popular here as they do in CA. I remember being surprised at all the alu hulls I saw in Vancouver and Vancouver I, especially the commercial boats.
High Speed ferries are..
often Aluminum. I know the high speed catamarans in Boston harbor and the Provincetown ferry are made of Al. To get the performance you need to lighten up the hull.
Yup, and they're made in AUS
I know the high-speed cat that goes to Yarmouth NS was made in Aus. No idea about local ferries here - P-town, Nantucket, etc. Google found a shipyard in Alabama that makes large aluminum hulled boats - Austal USA - though it's an Aus company.
These fire boats are much smaller, though, and kind of a specialty item. I'm curious how many builders there are of something like this.
Free trade?
Free trade means allowing people to choose their best option, regardless of where it was produced. I don't see how you can call yourself "all for free trade" when you want them only to look at American companies.
Paid for with stimulus money
Stimulus money should be spent here - on things that stimulate the economy. For example - instead of saying, hey Boston, here's $2 million - you chip in the other half and go buy a boat in Canada - but make sure it has some US parts, maybe it makes more sense to say - hey - we don't have a very good aluminum boat industry and a lot of our cities need new fireboats and a volume discount would help them acquire them - let's put some money toward designing the best urban fireboat in the world and then gather up orders for say 25-50 of these and then find an American company that can build them as cost effectively as the Aussies and the Canadians and then see if we can't sell another 50 to cities around the world. That's a lot better and more stimulative than the scenario above. Not saying this is a perfect solution and I'm sure if you want to retort you can come up with lots of issues that need to be addressed - but thinking big picture with a US focus is lots better than throwing money around to go buy stuff from other countries with money that's intended to kick start OUR economy.
I'd like to see the other bids...
...just to see how many potential suppliers there were. Not to state the obvious, but this is a very specialized piece of equipment. It isn't just the alu hull, it's also all the systems that get installed. I'm too lazy/busy to Google it, but there can't be too many suppliers of fireboats in the world. I wonder if there are any in the USA.