It's WINDSday | April 17, 2024

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

Every vessel, whether military, commercial, or pleasure, needs anodes. To protect submerged structures from corrosion, an anode, made from a metal alloy composed of more “active” voltage materials, sacrifices itself over time to save a ship. 

Who makes anodes, which come in dozens of sizes and shapes based on the type of surface to which they adhere?

That would be CMP Global, a century-old Vancouver-based company you have likely not heard of, operating locally in a massive warehouse off Route 460 in Suffolk that you have never seen. Its leader is a hard-charging young businessman you ought to know.

Darrick Lamaster’s dad was an aviation mechanic at NAS Oceana. After high school and with an online business degree, his son hooked up with Blackwater, yes, the Moyock company (now called Academi) that made headlines in Afghanistan and Iraq as the private sector provider of men and equipment for the American war efforts.

For six years, Darrick was their logistics director, “the best job I ever had,” even though he was told by the ex-Seal owners that “people could die” if he didn’t “get things to where they needed to be on time.”

His next stop was the Hampton Roads location for a major Midwest distributor.

“It was bleeding red ink when I came in.” When he left, it was the company’s top producer. “Then I got a call from CMP.”

Darrick drove a hard bargain before agreeing to stand up their first East Coast office. “We started in a small building in VA Beach, quickly outgrew it, moved into one four times larger (40,000 square feet) in Portsmouth, and then I told the bosses I needed 85,000 sf in Suffolk, telling them it’s where Amazon, Walmart and lots of other big players were.”

Convinced, they took the plunge, and seven years later, Darrick’s operation handles more product than CMP’s other centers in Canada and China. Most of it are anodes made in-house by workers ladling hot zinc and other non-ferrous metals into molds, where they cool quickly and are out the door to anxious customers, mainly in the Navy, through one of 16 bay doors at the back of the plant. 

“We surely hope that our anodes will be on many of the monopiles and vessels serving the Dominion Energy windfarm,” says the super confident Lamaster, a board member of the VA Maritime Association and, though an Ohioan by birth, a big booster of our region. I’m just 44, but my wife Jamie and I have five sons, three in their 20s, and a grandchild. We love it here.” Needless to say, we don’t want him to leave.  

We have reported in the past that the 472-foot-long Charybdis, the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, is under construction in Brownsville, Texas.

Well its owner, Dominion Energy, says it’s now off the pier and in the water. Once the welding of the hull and commissioning of its four legs and jacking system were completed, it was ready to go.

To be homeported in Hampton Roads with a US crew, the Charybdis will be critical to the installation of CVOW’s offshore wind turbines but others along the coast too. The vessel, named for a Greek sea monster, has heavyweight capabilities. It can handle turbine sizes of 12mw and larger (indeed, each of CVOW’s will be 14.7mw). Launching the vessel, according to a Dominion release, “marked a historical achievement as the world's largest completed lift totaling 23,000 tons.”

According to a 2023 article in Fast Company, the Charybdis is a wonder in maritime engineering. “It can pull off a specialized trick that an average ship can’t accomplish. It will be capable of lowering legs down to the seafloor and then raising itself up totally out of the water, so it becomes a stable platform in the ocean.” CLICK HERE for more info.

Also, CVOW has received a final construction air permit from the EPA, the 11th and final

federal nod required to begin offshore construction, which will commence next month with the

first monopile installation 27 miles off the coast.

Imagine spending almost 27 years in state prisons for a murder you know you didn’t commit?

Troy Ketchmore insists someone else at the scene of an incident in Newport News that never should have turned violent pulled the trigger. Despite his frustration with the system and while still behind bars in 2005, Troy and his sister Chanell created Ketchmore Kids lnc. to divert young people away from the gangs and crime and toward honest pursuits.

“We want to ‘Ketchmore' Kids than drugs, Ketchmore Kids than guns, Ketchmore Kids than prisons, and Ketchmore Kids than the streets."

Chanell Ketchmore & Troy Ketchmore

Their mission is to “deliver hope, healing and peace of mind to youth and their families.” He is frequently interviewed in local media because of his expertise.

The City took notice, found grant money and earlier this year took Troy to the White House. Yes, that’s him with Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones, City Manager Alan Archer, Police Chief Steve Drew and Greg Jackson, Deputy Director of the nation’s first Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

“We hope Newport News can receive additional government funding so we can reach more young people,” says Troy, “but also see our program become a national model.”

It helps to have an authentic leader like Troy. “The kids listen to me because I’m a tangible role model who has traveled the road that many of them are traveling,” he says. “I came out of prison a changed person and am trying to make a living doing the right thing.”

To help Troy continue his crusade, visit ketchmorekids.org. And to read a longer version of this story, pick up this week’s VEER Magazine, a WINDSday partner, at Harris Teeter and other locations in the region. 

Shawarma may be the fastest of fast foods. It consists of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in an inverted cone, and roasted on a slow-turning vertical spit.

At Mr. Shawarma (www.mrshawarma.com) at 725 West 21st Street in Ghent or at 1965 Laskin Road in VA Beach, the protein is shaved and served in a pita, as a wrap or in a bowl, with vegetables, hummus, rice and dressings.

“It’s spiced right, healthy, and you don’t have to wait,” says Tal Ofir who for 8 years has worked with partner Avi Eli to bring authentic Middle Eastern Street Food to Hampton Roads.

Tal, now 31 with a wife and young child, came to America in 2014 and within a year was a co-owner. “I’m a pretty simple person,” says Tal, whose other strength is customer service. “I love telling them how we make our shawarma.”

Another good spot for middle eastern fare is the Cardo Café at the Jewish Community Center, 5000 Corporate Woods Drive in VB.

Eitan Altschuler, whose father was a rabbi in the late 80’s in Norfolk, is back after earning an undergrad degree in California (he’s a Banana Slug from UC Santa Cruz) and living in Israel where he picked up baking and cooking skills. At the Cardo, he features American standards plus a Humusiya menu that includes sabikh, schnitzel and Druze pita sandwiches plus refreshing limonana, a slushy mix of lemonade and fresh mint. And he will cater your Passover Seder (next Monday/Tuesday nights) or any event. Order on the website. www.thehumusiya.com. 

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