USCGC Hollyhock repairs could impact Port Huron Coast Guard Days
July 29, 07 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By ANGELA MULLINS | Source: Times Herald
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock may miss Port Huron’s Coast Guard Days festival in August.
The ship, commissioned in 2004, is expected to go into emergency dry dock in the next few weeks to have a propeller hub replaced. The ship’s crew has been trying since March to determine what has been causing the propeller to periodically leak oil.
Several times in the past five months divers have examined the propeller and have thought each time the problem was fixed, said the ship’s Lt. Cmdr. Mike Davanzo.
Officials decided July 18 the propeller should be replaced and the Hollyhock would remain in port until the problem is resolved, which caused it to miss the Saturday start of the Port Huron-to-Mackinac Island Sailboat Race.
Since the leak first was noticed, the ship has leaked less than a 1/2 gallon of oil into the water, Davanzo said. The Coast Guard has had work done on the ship’s propeller twice before - in 2004 and 2005 - to address similar problems.
It’s unknown where the Hollyhock will be dry docked. Commercial docks on the Great Lakes will be given a chance to bid on the project. Davanzo would not comment on how the much the work is expected to cost or when it will be completed. Officials in Great Lakes shipyards could not provide the Times Heraldan estimate for the project without exact specifications about the ship.
The Coast Guard is in the process of trying to find another cutter to fill in for the Hollyhockif it does not return to Port Huron before Coast Guard Days on Aug. 24, 25 and 26, said Chief Robert Lanier, spokesman for the Ninth Coast Guard District in Cleveland.
The Hollyhock was scheduled to be open for public tours at the Seaway Terminal on Aug. 25 along with the retired Coast Guard cutter Bramble, the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps Grayfoxand the tall ship Highlander Sea.
Coast Guard Days first was organized by a committee that included city and Coast Guard officials three years ago.
“The reality is depending on where we go to dry dock. We may or may not be back (for the festival),” Davanzo said.
01 • fred lennon Says: 13.09.08 at 10:27 pm
I was stationed on the old Hollyhock in 1954. Iwould like to be able to email them but do not have the address can you help?
thanks fred lennon