Work Boat World – Editorial – April 2016
I'm well aware that "two swallows don't a summer make" but I have enthusiastically noted a few new fishing boats that have been reviewed on these pages recently. As with most new vessels intended for other sectors, they are tending to be bigger, more complex, more capable and, of course, more expensive than their predecessors. This is encouraging.
Many of our readers, advertisers and even our staff have commented to me in the past that we should publish separate magazines for all the various sectors that comprise the overall work boat market. For many years we did, indeed, publish Fishing Boat World but, very wisely, I believe, we merged that into Work Boat World. The idea of Tug World, OSV World, Ferry World and so on fills me with horror.
Apart from the obvious realities that a combined magazine gives our advertisers access to all the sectors in one magazine for the price of one advertisement, our readers benefit from being able to draw ideas and inspiration from all sectors of the workboat market.
So, we will not neglect any sector, including fishing boats. They are all closely connected in terms of design, construction and equipment. Indeed, some of our older readers will recall that most of the OSV sector, in terms of designers, builders and equipment suppliers, originated in the fishing industry. The same applies to much of the fast ferry sector and, now, the offshore wind service sector.
Forward thinking designers, builders, equipment suppliers and even maritime publishers need to maintain an interest in and contacts with all sectors. It is very dangerous in the fast moving and highly cyclical global maritime world to be excessively specialised. I have seen too many companies in this industry fail because of inflexibility. Vessel owners, too, need to be wide-ranging in their sources of ideas.
That is perhaps a long and roundabout way of justifying our continued interest in sectors like fishing that many in the industry thought were dead or dying years ago. The ultimate reality is that the maritime industry and its various component sectors are very cyclical. They are never up forever nor are they ever down forever.
The great thing about sectoral revival is that it is normally accompanied by renewal. That is exactly what has been happening with the latest crop of fishing boats. They are very impressive vessels in every respect. They are a big improvement on the generation of boats that they replace.
I know that there are a number of parts of the fishing business that are seeing a significant economic revival. This is partly thanks to more rational fisheries management regimes now having been in force long enough to be really effective. It is partly because, in some places, the economic reality of over fishing has forced industry to give some grounds a rest. And, finally, it is partly because the resulting shortages of certain species of fish have forced prices up dramatically.
Whatever, it is inspiring the introduction of bigger, more efficient, safer, more comfortable and more economical fishing vessels. It is inevitable that many of them, once their owners and crews get used to them, will be very profitable. We just have to hope that the various national and international authorities that control the fishing industry can really manage it properly.
The last thing the sector needs is a continuation of the old and excessive boom and bust cycle. Over-investment is economic and environmental idiocy.
The fishing sector and all the sub-sectors that support it must be managed for long-term economic and environmental sustainability. We want to see more of these magnificent new boats – just not too many of them!
The OSV sector – is the gloom overdone?
As mentioned above, the overall work boat industry and its various sectors are very susceptible to economic over-reaction, to dramatic cycles of boom and bust.
While the fishing and fast ferry sectors are looking good at present, the OSV sector is looking terrible. Owners, builders and operators are rapidly "downsizing" and a few actually going broke. Boats are laid-up all over the place.
This was all the inevitable result of the over-investment and over-ordering that accompanied record high oil prices. Now they have returned to reality, or probably rather less, we are seeing relentlessly excessive gloom on the down side. This has been a feature of the sector since it was born in the mid-1960s.
Apart from the fact that most recently launched OSVs are very good ships that could well be absorbed elsewhere, the current dramatic down-cycle will, hopefully, provide the OSV sector with a powerful lesson in the realities and severity of shipping cycles. Just as in the fishing sector, over-investment is a highly dangerous practice.
From my long experience of booms and busts, I am well aware that in booms it is never as good as the mob believes. The same applies to busts: it is never as bad as conventional wisdom tells us.
Oil prices will go up and exploration and development will resume. Good reliable and adaptable OSVs will again be needed. Meanwhile, as we are already seeing, some are going into the offshore wind farming sector; some into ocean towing and salvage; some into refugee rescue; and, others into construction work.
Although governments are always slow to seize on the good opportunities that are presented to them, some may wake up to the fact that many OSVs would make excellent corvettes, patrol and rescue vessels and, especially, disaster relief ships. Right now, they are as cheap as they will ever be. They are readily and economically made over for new roles.
It is certainly not the end of the world, even for the OSV market.
Neil Baird
