The only shipbuilder on the Tees is looking to double its turnover to £2m in the next year.
 As one job leaves Aveco's Normanby Wharf next month owner Dennis Aveling is expecting a contract worth around £250,00 for a new river tanker, to be followed by the £1m-plus Blade Runner 3 - a 76m motorised shallow water barge used to transport wind turbines from Newport to Southampton. "We did the first two Blade Runners, so there is no reason to suspect we will not get the third one at the end of the year," said Mr Aveling. "This next one will be a little trickier, though. As the turbine blades are getting bigger and the barges can't be any larger because of the constraints they are working in, the design of the third one will mean a rethink on the wheelhouse." But before that happens, the yard will shortly be wishing bon voyage to the hull of a 26m tug as it is towed down the coast for refinishing work at Hepworth's shipyard at Hull. From there it will sail to Ukraine to help tankers in and out of the Caspian oilfield. The contract was worth around £200,000 to Aveco, and Mr Aveling said: "There was a lot of work in this one. The structure inside is tremendous. There is so much pull at the back of these tugs that every frame spacing had to be a continuous floor. "We are already in talks with Hepworths about building a tanker with seven tanks for them. "If we get the contract, which would be worth about £250,000 to us, it would mean building three quarters of the vessel and then floating that down to Hull, where Hepworths would fit the engine room." And while the contracts have not yet been signed, Mr Aveling is quietly confident, proud that in the company's 25-year history he has not lost a customer. Aveco regularly hits the £1m turnover mark and employs between 20 and 30 staff, depending on the amount of work. "We keep it small because we don't have too many men, and the workforce depends on the size of the job," added Mr Aveling. The company is doing a lot of work for the RNLI throughout the UK. It is also hoping to clinch a deal making mooring pontoons for the River Thames in time for the Olympics. Aveco has an impressive portfolio including dock gates for Hull and Southampton, car ferries, 24 fishing boats, plus a Sea Cat for Blue Funnel Cruises, major parts of the Atlantic Conveyor (which was sunk in the Falklands conflict) and the conversion of four rubbish barges on the Thames to be covered instead of open. But perhaps one of Mr Aveling's proudest pieces of work is the steel replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour, moored at Stockton. Two pontoons are ready for transportation later this week to Conwy Quay in Wales, built for Mowlem in a contract worth around £75,000. "I love ships and we are showing that the Tees is alive and can still build," he said. However, Mr Aveling,71, is starting to take more of a back seat, with son-in-law Peter Conwell taking the reins. | 
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