Rand Boats

[Guest]

(WASHINGTON) — The bulk carrier American Mariner was leaving a dock near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, last year when the master — acting alone on the bridge during complicated maneuvers — overshot a turn and grounded on shoals, damaging three ballast water tanks, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported Tuesday.

https://professionalmariner.com/master- ... f5cd3cf827

[Guest]

You forgot the American Spirit is OOC with engine problems, crew finally sent home after a week. ASC is under the Rand umbrella.

They may be under the same company name, but nothing is further from the truth. ASC calls the shots when it comes to budget and repairs. They are the ones with the Engineering staff.

Not an insider but ASC most likely has to get approval for its budget from it's parent company.
Ultimately the hedge fund decides whether a project goes through and provides the funding for that project.

Have heard numerous stories that Canadian National tells Keys Lakes what they can or cannot spend on the Great Lakes Fleet.

[Guest]

You forgot the American Spirit is OOC with engine problems, crew finally sent home after a week. ASC is under the Rand umbrella.

They may be under the same company name, but nothing is further from the truth. ASC calls the shots when it comes to budget and repairs. They are the ones with the Engineering staff.

[guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

For one, it didn't nearly capsize. Do you have insider information about the lack thereof of their maintenance and upkeep? If so, share it with us. And lest we forget, we're boatnerds on here that realize that many men are employed on those boats that have families to feed and do a great job at what they do.

I am on the boats and I have worked for this company in the past. Lest we forget many boatnerds work on the ships and don't like their industry getting a bad name from a bad company.

[Geest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

For one, it didn't nearly capsize. Do you have insider information about the lack thereof of their maintenance and upkeep? If so, share it with us. And lest we forget, we're boatnerds on here that realize that many men are employed on those boats that have families to feed and do a great job at what they do.

When you remove the crew and interviewed crew members use the word “terrified” the term capsizing doesn’t seem to be far fetched.

I agree, the statements from the crew that have gone public indicate they very much felt their lives were in imminent danger from the vessel breaking up further or going down entirely. Clearly there was enough of a danger that half the crew was removed for safety.

[Guest Jon Paul]

The American spirit has been having engine issues for the last 3 years. This is not something new that happened this year!

That's kind of the point. Rand has had ongoing maintenance issues that are starting to effect the viability of their fleets to deliver cargo for their customers

[guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

For one, it didn't nearly capsize. Do you have insider information about the lack thereof of their maintenance and upkeep? If so, share it with us. And lest we forget, we're boatnerds on here that realize that many men are employed on those boats that have families to feed and do a great job at what they do.

A fifteen degree list on a forward ender of that size puts one side of the boat almost 10 feet deeper than the other according to the AAA diagrams. That puts the rails either in or nearly in the water, especially on a loaded boat. So, yeah, everything was going super.

[Mn bob]

The American spirit has been having engine issues for the last 3 years. This is not something new that happened this year!

[guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

For one, it didn't nearly capsize. Do you have insider information about the lack thereof of their maintenance and upkeep? If so, share it with us. And lest we forget, we're boatnerds on here that realize that many men are employed on those boats that have families to feed and do a great job at what they do.

When you remove the crew and interviewed crew members use the word “terrified” the term capsizing doesn’t seem to be far fetched.

[Guest]

Didn't your Mother used to tell you?... "If you don't have anything nice to say, just shut up."

Except the public lumps all companies together. Especially the environmental anti-business crowd. Look at what they tried to mandated after the boat anchor almost took out Line 5. You can bet if there had been a major oil spill the industry (all the industry) would have paid dearly.

The public can just look at the lack of fabric maintenance in this this fleet and come to all sorts of conclusions. And that paints companies that do take care of their fleets with the same brush.

[ckoster]

Not to mention the American Spirit has gone to Ashtabula for yet more engine repairs. Seems like a constant cycle for them. Don't have to go back too far in the time either to pick up Cuyahoga's two fires and the American Mariner's season starting grounding. Definitely not a good year for Rand.

Much like when the FAA stepped in when United had a sequence of emergency landings earlier this year, one has to wonder if the USCG will feel the need to step in with additional temporary oversight.

[Guest Jon Paul]

We can add American Spirit to the list as they have been docked in Ashtabula for a week with engine troubles

[Guest]

You forgot the American Spirit is OOC with engine problems, crew finally sent home after a week. ASC is under the Rand umbrella.

[Guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

For one, it didn't nearly capsize. Do you have insider information about the lack thereof of their maintenance and upkeep? If so, share it with us. And lest we forget, we're boatnerds on here that realize that many men are employed on those boats that have families to feed and do a great job at what they do.

[Guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.

I've called Grand River "Ghetto River" since not too long after the company began. They are the lowest common denominator seemingly determined to run the Great Lakes shipping industry ,in particular the American part, into the ground!! I'm not saying that other companies are perfect or couldn't do better but if a child of mine wanted to work for Grand River I would get them tested for their evident psychiatric problems!!

[Guest Jon Paul]

I was about to post the same thing about Rand not having a good week. It will be interesting to see the root causes of all theses breakdowns.

[guest]

The Michipicoten nearly capsizes, the Manitowoc starts on fire loading, and the Victory has to be towed out of the locks. A red letter week for Rand shipping. No doubt their careful maintenance and upkeep of their fleets keeps it going so well.