Zidell Marine Division, Ship Repair, Portland, Ore., was awarded a contract recently by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out emergency repairs to the hopper dredge Yaquina (shown above), because of a burned-out bearing.
The vessel's chief officer, Capt. Ray Lambert, said the 1,960-gt dredge had been tested for 22 working days in Chesapeake Bay, and had worked nine days on the Columbia River. It was while in the latter location that the bearing problem developed.
The Yaquina is the newest dredge assigned to the Portland Corps District, and is destined to replace the old Pacific, built around 1937. Yaquina has a hopper capacity of 825 cubic yards, compared with the Pacific's 500, and is 200 feet long with a beam of 58 feet. She is powered by two 1,125-bhp diesel engines driving twin screws, and is fitted with a bow thruster with a 500-bhp diesel turning a 48-inch propeller.