Ausmarine Editorial – June 2015
Most work boats are well built and should have useful lives well exceeding 30 years. Those constructed from aluminium or FRP may well survive for considerably longer.
I was reminded of this recently when Rose and I took a commercial cruise around Esperance Bay on the south coast of Western Australia. The boat we were on was a 20-year-old Sea-Chrome Conquest 55, a 17-metre former lobster boat with a well-used, and loved, Caterpillar diesel.
The boat was still in very good condition despite twenty years of hard work as both a fishing boat and a tourist ferry/dive boat. While its lobster pot winch remained in place, about the only signs of its conversion to a tourist role were an extended awning over most of the aft deck and a long seat/air tank store down the centreline of the deck. An amazingly quick, easy and economical conversion from one role to another.
Still capable of over 20 knots, the boat was, her skipper informed me, rarely run at such speeds. Normally just enough to keep her planing. Whatever, that was plenty for a two hour cruise, carrying up to 50 passengers, around the beautiful Bay of Islands at Esperance.
Where I live on Sydney's Pittwater we see lots of fishing boats and government work boats that have been converted into leisure boats of all shapes and sizes. Most are very attractive, seaworthy looking and seem to keep their owners very happy. We even have a couple of, probably 30-year-old, catamaran fast ferries that have been converted to motor yachts.
Obviously, given the usually comparatively low prices of second-hand fishing and work boats, these, usually minimalist conversions compare very well economically with buying new. The point is that there are a very wide range of work boats that lend themselves to such conversions mainly because their hulls and other major components are so well built.
We have seen tugs and trawlers converted to "expedition yachts"; trawlers and long-liners made over into standby vessels; and, many lobster boats converted to offshore service, dive boat, naval work boat and other roles. The list of possibilities is practically endless but it does give serious food for thought.
I have just finished reading the RAND Corporation report Australia's Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise which was released by the government recently. I was very impressed with its common-sense, realistic and global approach.
Of course, some of my bureaucrat and current defence shipbuilder friends would say; "Sure he'd be impressed, it just reinforces all his prejudices against us!" They would probably be correct but the facts are that it is a completely independent report produced at arm's length by a well-respected, non-Australian research house.
Certainly, I would have expected RAND to come up with the conclusions they have. Any independent, objective analysis would quickly reach the same conclusions. Basically, it shows that Australian-built naval vessels are ridiculously expensive. RAND has collated some accurate facts. They don't make for pleasant reading.
Basically, our warships are costing us around 30 per cent more than similar vessels built in the also very expensive United States. Worse, they are more than double the cost of similar vessels built in South Korea or Japan. Surprise, surprise!! They are also generally slower to build.
I trust that our government, which I understand is desperately seeking cost savings all over the place, will take the RAND Corp report seriously and take rapid and drastic action to ensure we get much greater value for our naval shipbuilding dollars.
It's quite simple, really. The first action should be to liquidate, not sell, ASC. We should then resolve to purchase all future naval vessels of frigate and submarine size and complexity and above from reputable, proven, competitive overseas shipbuilders. These purchases should be on the basis of simple, clear, fixed-term, fixed-price contracts with no further naval or governmental interference or variations after the contracts have been signed following a simple, transparent tender process.
Some of the many billions of dollars this process would save could be used locally to purchase significant fleets of OPV/corvettes and Incat/Austal type fast catamaran support/supply vessels of around 100 metres LOA. A number of Australian naval architects and ship yards have the proven capability to design and build such ships.
As well, any equipment or support vessels for the bigger ships that can be built competitively in Australia, should be built here. I have in mind liferafts and escape chutes and the landing craft for our LHDs.
Finally, the hideous, corrupt and expensive "frequent flyer points" syndrome should be removed once and for all from defence purchasing.
Neil Baird
