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Welcome to the Directors Comments Page.
In this page I shall put my comments on what is happening with our hopeful projects and what is happening within the industry in general as well as some personal comments and news.
Well January 2009 was a good start for us with 4 projects to keep us busy. HMS Scott was a nice little one in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard with some pretty intricate pipe bending to be done. The good old Pride of Bilbao in Falmouth, always a favourite with the lads with it's friendly people and warm welcome. We were one of only 2 companies to be invited to the refit. The Incat 050 (to be named Manannan) started to be outfitted, again in Portsmouth Dockyard so some nice local work (which makes a welcome change). The Stenna Leader was one of those jobs that came out of yet another example of people thinking that Marine Electrics are no different than industrial or commercial Electrics, which they are. An Electrical refit job gone wrong, lucky Harris Pye Outfitting knew we could be relied upon to go up country and put things right at a very competative price.Also in January 2009 we gained a repair contract with Carnival UK, with the whole P&O fleet and the Cunard fleet, along with Princess Cruises we are hoping to pick some of the smaller projects up in the near future.
February 2009 is going to be a much more sedate affair with just the Manannan on our books for this month.
Sad news hit us this month though. Darren Mathews a repected and trusted friend, known to many people in the refit and ship repair industry and a familiar face on the QE2, died suddenly whilst working in Burma. His ever optomistic outlook and smiling face in the crew bars will be missed. I was with Darren on what I think was his last trip to New York on the Queen Mary 2, which was the usual trip full of stories of some of the silly things that happen to us when we work on these ships. This is the last picture I took of Darren, in New York.
 Darren Mathews. A gentle giant and always a great laugh. 20.04.1966 - 14.02.2009
Well February 2009 came and went in a blink of an eye and March see's us still working on Manannan in Portsmouth Dockyard. Had news that HMS Endurance will be repaired in Portsmouth and we have been asked to tender for some of the repair work when it is back and clean in May. We have also been asked to price for quite a few up and coming projects for this year and 2010 so things are looking up. Latest date for completion of Manannan is late April early May, I would say early May looking at the amount of work still to do. The extra work keep coming in as more and more plumbing nighmares are uncovered. I think that by the end of this we would have re plumbed about 85% of the entire ship, which has been great for us.
April 2009, well we are seeing light at the end of the Manannan tunnel, leave date is 8th of May and we still have plenty of extras to complete so we are upping the manpower to see if we can finish early. Nick and Myself (we are looking at Plumbing and Electrical on this ship) will be attending HMS Endurance on the 9th of May so any time we can get to prepare for that would be good. We have also been invited to look at some more plumbing works on HMS Scott and some electrical works on Red Funnels new red jet, which is in Nassau at the moment. So things are definately looking up. Especially in this current economic climate.
May 2009, Manannan has left portsmouth and has gone to her new home in Liverpool and the Isle of Man. I am pleased to say that everyone was very happy with the standard of workmanship carried out by Nick Choppen and the crew. We never got the Red Jet work in the end and the HMS Scott plumbing works nebver materialised. Endurance is in but that will be going on in November time if it goes ahead. This will now be the time to knock on doors and get the quoting done for the refit season.
June 2009. A bit of a strange month this. Quoting, quoting, quoting. Have quoted over a million pounds worth of work this month alone. Have had a few small jobs but nothing of any size worth mentioning. Had a meeting with Carnival UK, they have offered me a freelance Project Management contract for the Ocean Village 2 refit in Singapore in late November 2009, helping out with the furnishings division, looking after a major re carpeting project.
Another blow to the year this month, unfortunately Mum died suddenly on the 22nd of June which was a devastating blow, she was a truly inspirational woman, having survived the second world war and hard times after. It was her and my Dads influence in my life which gives me the determination required to soldier on with a smile when things look grim, they were a great team and should be proud of the six well ballanced and hard working children they taught to stand on their own two feet and take what life throws at them. RIP Mum 01.03.1932 - 22.06.2009.
July 2009. Not much work involvement this month. A bit of a personal Month with Mums funeral to arrange and estate to sort.
August 2009. After quoting against all the odds for Electrical and Plumbing works on RFA Black Rover and not expecting to even come close. We have been awarded both contracts. This is a big testing ground for us, as the MOD and Cammel Laird dockyard will be watching us closely, but I have every confidence in the men to do a great job as usual for me. had to postpone the holiday with my girls for a few days as I am expected to attend site on the 3rd to kick things off and start the strip out. All a bit of a rush, not what we are used to in this industry. Got told on the 30th of July I had the contract and also told to have men on site by the 3rd of August to start the strip out.
September 2009. We are ploughing ahead on the RFA Black Rover galley project, it is looking good.
October 2009. Black Rover has been completed on time and on target and this month saw the galley commisioned. The customer must have been slightly impressed as they asked us to start work on the next RFA the Orange Leaf which was a great compliment for us as a company. On a more personal note for me, I had my PA start this month, Anne Cattrall, I suspect she will be making my life a lot easier and taking some of the flak off me and redisrecting it elsewhere.
November 2009. Always a busy month, and this year is no different. We are still working on Orange leaf, we have some nice work on the Saga Ruby and I personally had to attend the Ocean Village II conversion refit in Singapore as a freelance Superintendant for Carnival Australia, a huge comliment and responsibility for me.
December 2009. A nice wind down, just tinkering on the Orange Leaf this month, taking our time to make sure all is well with both the plumbing and electrical side of this project.
January 2010. New year over and we are back in Birkenhead to complete work on the Orange Leaf, although commisioning will not be untill March we are very please to have walked away from site yet again knowing we have finished well on time. We have also sent men to Swansea to work on the Saga Pearl II conversion refit. We are helping to finish this ship off and have undertaken projects in a few areas. we have also been awarded our most major project yet, Pacific Dawn refit,I surveyed this ship in Syndey (for 2 days) in December and we have won the contract to carry out major works on decks 5,6 and 7 in May, I am really pleased with this step forward, only probelm is our existing premisses are not big enough to cope mwith the logistics for this project, so we have to find a new one and move pronto, this is where Anne will be invaluable.
February 2010. Saga Pearl II is the flavour of this month, lots of extras, pretty much every public toilet on boardis to be refurbished by us and a new dissabled toilet to be built. We also have other bits and pieces on board.
March 2010. This month we have moved to new offices and warehousing (well done Anne, found the right place at the right price and got us moved in without too much stress for me, but probably plenty for her), we have simply outgown our old premisses. We have been very busy on Saga Pearl II doing works all around the ship, we have finally commisioned Orange Leaf Galley, ahd some more work in the Hospital on board Orange Leaf. We just got into the new premisses in time for us to sort the logistics for the major project in Australia (Pacific Dawn) which has all been sent by container toward Brisbane now, lets just hope I have not forgotten anything.
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