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Blake Powell, President of JMS Naval Architects, discusses his career, the company, and the latest trends in naval architecture and marine engineering.
Please provide a brief professional resume, including education, experience, and an overview of your current responsibilities as President of JMS Naval Architects, Inc.
I earned a degree in Naval Architecture from UC Berkeley, where I received a Navy ROTC scholarship and upon graduation was commissioned as a Diving and Salvage Officer. After diving school, the Navy assigned me to a 212-foot rescue tugboat in Hawaii, where I served as an assistant engineer right out of college. I immediately applied my academic knowledge of marine engineering to running a real-world engineering plant. This experience is immeasurable. After leaving the Navy, I went to work for JMS Naval Architects, which at the time was doing a lot of support for the U.S. Navy’s salvage supervisors. Following the Exxon Valdez accident and the implementation of OPA 90 in the commercial shipping industry, salvage engineering and maritime casualty response became a focus of attention. Since then our business has grown to provide a full range of shipbuilding, marine engineering, salvage engineering and marine surveying services to commercial and government clients. I have been a principal for over 12 years.
Why did you choose to enter the shipbuilding field? What do you love most about this career?
Who doesn’t love hanging out on a boat? I grew up sailing in New England. My summer job in high school involved working on a boat. Naval architecture seemed like a natural degree to pursue. Berkeley offers a great program and Navy offers a great opportunity. It all came together very naturally. The best part of my job is that I still get to spend time conducting inspections, marine surveys and sea trials on a variety of ships around the world.
How would you describe JMS Naval Architects to someone who is not familiar with the company? What do you think is the company’s greatest strength?
We provide complete ship design and engineering consultancy services to help our clients manage their fleets. Although we focus on the workboat segment of the marine industry, we have a very diverse customer base. Our customers own and operate research vessels, heavy barges, floating dry docks, tugs, amphibious passenger vessels, historic vessels, you name it.
Our greatest strength is that our staff approach each project with a full understanding of our customers’ operational needs and apply practical deck experience to come up with innovative yet pragmatic engineering solutions. Our naval architects must be multidisciplinary and involved in all aspects of the project. They are smart and creative and get excited about anything that floats their boat.
The latest news from JMS Naval Architects. Can you share an update or details on some noteworthy projects you’re working on or recently completed?
There’s always something new. We don’t repeat a lot of the same work. Our projects, like most of our clients, are very unique, but that’s what makes the job fun.
JMS recently completed the design of a 125-foot research vessel for the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) in Cocoderry, Louisiana. The multi-purpose research vessel will support a variety of oceanographic missions in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Delta. It is equipped with a 1,600 horsepower (HP) propulsion system, 150 HP bow thruster, dynamic positioning system, multiple marine winches, two A-frames for launching and recovering instruments, a complex hydroacoustic system and can accommodate up to Accommodation facilities for 24 persons. Crew and scientists. The shipyard tender has now closed and construction of the vessel should begin soon.
Recently, we have also seen a strong interest in dry docks, in part due to MARAD’s funding program for small shipyards to modernize their facilities and replace aging infrastructure. We designed several dry docks and provided funding through a grant program. One of our floating dry dock designs is currently under construction at a shipyard in New York. Another JMS-designed floating dry dock was recently constructed by Conrad Shipyards for Biblia Marine towing and transportation company in Savannah. They use a 120-foot, 500-ton dry dock primarily to service their own tugboats, but also provide similar repair and maintenance services to other shipowners in the area through their Savannah River facility.
JMS has seen several new crane barge designs recently built and has supported several projects to retrofit cranes on existing barges. The pair of 250 x 64 foot barges are designed to support Weeks Marine’s E-crane 3000 series handling cranes and were built at C&C Marine and Repair. The crane operates on deck-mounted rails, allowing the crane to travel the entire length of the barge, making it ideal for loading and unloading bulk materials. JMS has also prepared a retrofit package to install rails on an existing barge to enable the installation of another E-crane 3000 series crane for another customer. Another JMS-designed crane barge has been delivered to Sims Metal Management of Jersey City, New Jersey, to support Liebherr LHM-600 mobile harbor cranes at the Port of New York and New Jersey facility. The 240-foot x 72-foot barge was built by Sterling Shipbuilding in Port Arthur, Texas.
They are all interesting projects and it is very satisfying to see our technical solutions and designs come to life and work hard to serve our customers.
Are you seeing trends and advancements in shipbuilding (and ship technology) that you think are particularly interesting or exciting? please explain.
Of course, the electrification of ships and the integration of various “green” technologies has attracted widespread attention and provides JMS with the opportunity to help our customers develop new designs or retrofit existing ships with new technologies to meet their operational objectives. There are also real challenges in balancing rapidly evolving technology with the regulatory environment and the operational needs of customers. These three elements are critical to a project’s success, but they don’t always work well together. It requires a collaborative approach with all stakeholders, and JMS facilitates this.
What is the biggest challenge/concern your company faces right now? What is your approach to dealing with these issues?
people! One of the challenges is the limited number of naval architects working for independent engineering companies such as JMS. The workload ebbs and flows, but without enough experienced engineers, it’s difficult to take on every client and opportunity that may arise. We are lucky that JMS has smart, talented naval architects who are passionate about ships. But we need a steady stream of people coming into the maritime industry and committing to it. We also see our clients facing similar challenges in recruiting and retaining employees. This is definitely an industry-wide problem.
Another challenge is the recent significant increase in material and equipment costs, which has impacted shipowners’ plans. This highlights the importance of keeping our engineering solutions practical and cost-effective.
Looking back on your career, is there a project that stands out as the most memorable, interesting, or proud of you? If so, why?
This is a difficult question to answer. I was involved in a lot of projects and did a lot of different things – shipbuilding, marine surveying, diving, salvage engineering. Our support of America’s academic research fleet may be one of the most satisfying “programs.” The ARF is a collection of oceanographic research vessels owned by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and American universities. These ships operate around the world and are very unique in their missions and capabilities. I have been inspecting these vessels for the National Science Foundation for 25 years and have always loved getting my hands dirty and observing the work they do. I find the culture and attitude of the crew and scientists on these ships refreshing. They are all very passionate about the mission and the work these ships perform.
But overall, I’m most proud of the amount of repeat customers we have. If we don’t provide meaningful value, they won’t come back to JMS again and again.
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