Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from the line of Kevin Sterling – Stephens Inc.
Kevin Sterling – Stephens Inc.
Can you talk some about the advantages of bringing the technical management of your vessels in house? I know you recently announced that. If you could share some color with us as to maybe some of the cost savings and some of the advantages you might realize from doing that in house.
Akis Tsirigakis
I would be glad to. Of course, my background is in technical management and I used to have for many, many years a privately owned technical management company. I would like to apply that expertise in optimizing the technical operations of the fleet in-house. However, that could not be done right off the bat since we were coming from a stock background where you are actually not having any employees at all so that was not physical at the very, very beginning of our operations about 1.5 years ago. We have said we would do this in a step-wise manner and benchmarking our costs we now think it is wise to bring the entire fleet in-house to be managed technically. That will produce some cost savings with all the manage fees of course being saved. Plus we will have better operational control and that will produce indirect additional savings.
Kevin Sterling – Stephens Inc.
Regarding your dry docking schedule I think you have one vessel scheduled for dry dock in the second quarter for 48 days and then two vessels scheduled in the third quarter just for 20 days each. Is that right? Is that all of your dry docking for 2009?
Akis Tsirigakis
That is right. That’s all. In fact, I want to clarify something since you brought up the question. I saw some references in the press about moth-balling. This has absolutely nothing to do with dry docking which is taking a ship for regular service to the ship yard. All ships of all companies go to the ship yard every 2.5 years. If you optimize that, we try to do it more or less 50% of your fleet every year. So that is a very normal course of events that happens to all vessels of all companies. There is nothing particular to our company.
Kevin Sterling – Stephens Inc.
The case that you had in arbitration, where does the arbitration stand right now?
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