Steamship Eyes Former Oil Industry Vessels For New Freight Boats

The Steamship Authority is exploring the potential acquisition of new freight boats to replace its aging fleet - some of which are over 40 years old - and is investigating whether retrofitting former offshore oil vessels might be a good fit to serve the needs of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

During Tuesday’s Steamship Authority Board of Governor’s meeting, general manager Bob Davis said that due to the downturn in offshore oil exploration, there could be an opportunity to acquire so-called OSVs, or offshore support vessels, that are now docked and idle, with their owners looking to sell. The larger freight vessels could allow the Steamship to reallocate the M/V Eagle to carry more cars and fewer trucks during periods of peak demand.

“With the downturn in oil exploration, there are a number of vessels that are available that may be able to be converted to fit our needs,” Davis said. “We do have some concepts here, potentially, of what the OSVs would be.”

One of those concepts, which Davis and his team showed briefly during the meeting, showed an OSV vessel capable of carrying 50 cars, with interior seating for up to 200 passengers. They would potentially have far more capacity than the Steamship's existing freight boats to carry both vehicles and passengers.

The discussion of the potential acquisition of new freight boats followed Davis’ presentation of the results of the “Fleet Useful Life, Functional Obsolescence Report,” by Marine Safety Consultants Inc. in which he specifically noted the age of two freight boats in the Steamship’s fleet - the M/V Katama and M/V Gay Head - which were both built in 1981. That puts them well beyond the average lifespan of 25 to 30 years at which point the costs of vessel maintenance exceeds the benefits of extended usage.

"It's a little harrowing to see that a third of our fleet will be obsolete in three years, and 50 percent of our fleet in the next seven," said Peter Jeffrey, the SSA Board of Governors representative for Falmouth. "Does our bond limit even reach the level that we could think about replacing these vessels? I don't think it does."

So the potential to acquire used OSV vessels at bargain prices that would be far less than the cost of building a new freight boat is attractive for the Steamship Authority, especially given the fact that the boat line's bonding capacity may preclude that option altogether, as Jeffrey noted.

"In terms of some of these vessels, with the downturn, these are assets that are just sitting there," Davis said. "I think there is some opportunity there that could happen within our current bonding."

In addition to looking at the OSVs, the Steamship Authority is also anticipating the results of an additional study that has been undertaken to evaluate alternative propulsion systems such as electric vessels. Those results will be presented at next month’s Board of Governors meeting.

Following Tuesday’s public discussion, Nat Lowell, who serves as Nantucket’s representative on the Steamship Authority Port Council, indicated his support for exploring the OSV acquisition.

“This is simply about upgrading efficiency like we did lengthening and widening the current freight boats in 1997-98 and 2003-04,” said Nat Lowell,“These vessels have a wider hull and pilot house and exhaust systems are forward which allows for an unobstructed freight deck which is a massive improvement. This increases capacity with the same number of trips while modernizing the freight fleet for minimal costs which buys us a lot of time in planning the next vessel.”

Lowell added that “ This is a very positive move for both routes and the Authority’s operations."