Offer made for frigate work

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 4

Offer made for frigate work

By

DAVE WILSON

Sinclair Melbourne and Company, the Lytteltonbased engineering firm seeking the contract to do essential maintenance on H.M.N.Z.S. Southland, yesterday proposed an alternative, offering to complete the refit of H.M.N.Z.S. Canterbury.

The offer to tow the Canterbury to Lyttelton was made by Mr Bill Dolan, managing director of Sinclair Melbourne, who said the firm was willing and able to complete her refit, working under the direction of the Auckland naval dockyard.

Canterbury is halfway through a full refit at Devonport and after the cancellation of the full Southland refit the dockyard has been instructed to also do the Southland’s essential maintenance. Mr Dolan said Sinclair Melbourne had not abandoned hope of winning the maintenance contract and he expected the company to complete this week an unsolicited tender for that work.

Between $12,000 and $14,000 had been spent preparing the revised tender, which would be submitted to the Government. V

The Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and the Engineers’ Union have convened a meeting for October 15, when Christchurch’s Government members of Parliament will be briefed on moves to have the Southland work done at Lyttelton. Mr lan Howell, the manufacturers’ executive director, said the two New Zealand bidders for the now-scrapped full refit of the Southland would outline their cases to the meeting. In a joint statement, Mr Howell and the district secretary of the Engineers’ Union, Mr Bob Todd, said the strong representation of Government members indicated the importance placed on the frigate work being done in Canterbury. Sinclair Melbourne and Cable Price Downer are both keen to win all or a share of the modified refit of the Southland. Mr Dolan said Sinclair Melbourne’s new tender was being drawn up in line with the instructions of the Minister of Defence, Mr Tizard, to the Navy that the Southland should have maintenance work sufficient to ensure crew safety and permit seagoing operations.

“We are drawing on what we know of the ship and the information gathered when we prepared the tender for the full refit,” he said. The announcement that Lyttelton Engineering had won the contract to refit the Navy’s diving support vessel Manawanui was further confirmation of the port and district’s ability to do naval contracts. But a Navy spokesman, Lieutenant Lawrence Tye, said any decision to have the frigates Canterbury or Southland sent to Lyttelton for work would be a political rather than a Ministry of Defence decision. “In effect, what Sinclair Melbourne is proposing is to have the Devonport dockyard compete on a commerial basis for every refit.” The Government’s instructions to the Navy after the cancellation of the Southland refit wsa to have the essential maintenance package done at Devonport, with possibly some work available to private bidders. “Any decision on having the bulk of that work done elsewhere would have to come from the V. Government,” Lieutenant Tye said.