April_2_2007

As you will be aware, there has been a strike by the Canadian Merchant Service Guild against Harken, Hodder, Riverside and Jones Marine since early February which has caused most of the operations for those companies to halt.

Recently, we became aware that there was an incident whereby boom boards had been changed between two booms. The owner of a boom that we will call “ABC” was preparing to cut the boom and (quite by accident) discovered that the bundles about to be dewatered were not what the cut called for. After a thorough check they found that the correct boom (for cutting) had been tied adjacent to this boom at a storage ground where the exchange likely occurred.

Catherwood Towing skippers can not be responsible for determining whether this has happened with any boom that we are instructed to tow. They do check the sections but do not have the expertise in log grading or even species. As a result, we need to advise you that you may wish to carefully inspect all booms to ascertain that this has not happened before cutting at your mill pocket. We regret that in the event that there are boom board changes, and we tow the ‘wrong’ boom to your mill, we will be expecting payment for all of the towing that is carried out. This may require regular inspections of your boom(s) as they proceed up the river. Our dispatchers can provide details of towing and transit locations as booms proceed up the river to assist you with locating the boom(s).

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________