Five at Once! Florida Marine Hosts Mass Christening - September 27, 2007
Florida Marine Transporters already owns the record for the most new towboats built in succession. The company embarked on a new-build program with Eastern Shipbuilding Group in early 2006 to build what started out to be 25 identical 90-foot towboats. The order was then increased to 30 and was upped again just recently to 35. The boats are being launched at a rate of one a month; this month, Eastern will deliver its 19th vessel.
So it was no surprise when FMT set what is believed to be another record by christening five of the new towboats at once. The Mandeville, La.-based company broke champagne bottles over the bitts of the towboats Ron Hull, Janice Roberts, John P. Pasentine, Monica Means and Billy Burkett September 27 in Houston.
Louis Develle, FMT’s operations manager, said he is waiting to hear from the Guinness Book of World Records to see if the christening qualifies for a world record. The feat is unprecedented as far as the industry is concerned.
What may be just as impressive, though, is just how FMT managed to free up five working vessels at the same time and still meet its customers’ requirements.
“It took an incredible amount of coordination,” Develle said. “Dale Artigue, our chief operating officer, met with all the dispatchers a full month before the christening to see what needed to be done.”
It was like a big jigsaw puzzle. When they had all the pieces in place, using other FMT boats and outside power when necessary, they called their customers to let them know that their barges would be delivered on time, but possibly by a different boat than originally scheduled.
