Maritime News – Page 1085 – Professional Mariner

28 Feb

Lightweight carbon-fiber drive shafts becoming common on U.S. tractor tugs

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

The rest of the world has baseball bats, bicycles, skis and sailing yachts made either all or in part from carbon-fiber materials. Now the age of carbon fiber is finally making its way down into the machinery spaces of American tugboats. As of this year, about a half dozen U.S. tug companies are using carbon-fiber shafts â€” each weighing about…

28 Feb

East Coast docking pilots increasingly coming under state regulation

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

When a foreign ship arrives at the sea buoy of a West Coast port, direction of the vessel passes to a state-licensed pilot who navigates the vessel into the harbor and then brings the vessel alongside the dock with the assistance of tugs. In most cities on the East and Gulf coasts, however, federally licensed docking pilots take the conn…

28 Feb

2004 Plimsoll Awards won by Mississippi river pilot, Coast Guard R&D Center for support of AIS

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Tugboats & Towing

The editors of Professional Mariner have presented the Plimsoll Awards for 2004 to Capt. Douglas J. Grubbs of the Crescent River Port Pilots' Association and to the U.S. Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in Groton, Conn. Grubbs and the R&D Center were honored for their work in developing automatic identification system technology and promoting its acceptance by mariners. Rear…

28 Feb

New federal law requires inspection of towing vessels

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

Towing vessels will be required to undergo U.S. Coast Guard inspection as a result of new legislation that is expected to have a profound effect on the industry. C.F. Campbell is a 4,000-hp ocean-capable tug built in 1975 by Halter Marine. Over 5,000 tugs in the United States will be subject to U.S. Coast Guard inspection as a result of…

27 Feb

Southern California ports launch ambitious drive to cut air emissions

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

Harbor craft and oceangoing vessels will soon run cleaner at America's two biggest ports. The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach have agreed on a joint five-year program to reduce smog in Southern California. The San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan will require ships, trucks, trains and cargo handlers to reduce diesel emissions, and…

27 Feb

Decision to expand Panama Canal locks should benefit East and Gulf Coast ports

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

The decision to expand the 92-year-old Panama Canal should provide a major boost to East Coast and Gulf ports, even those that cannot handle post-Panamax vessels. By building locks capable of handling much larger ships, and widening and straightening channels, the Panama Canal Authority will dramatically increase the canal's capacity and allow the transit of vessels up to 1,200 feet…

27 Feb

The Seamen’s Church Institute presents lifesaving awards to Foss and Maersk crews

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

The Seamen's Church Institute recognized the crew of Justine Foss and the crews of Eli Maersk and Clementine Maersk with the organization's Lifesaving Awards at the Silver Bell Awards Dinner in New York on June 1. Jean R. Smith, executive director of SCI, commended the crew of Justine Foss. She praised "the brave crew of the Justine Foss for their…

27 Feb

New products aim to improve upon life rings

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

By Dom YanchunasFor Capt. Rory Sheridan and deck hand Paul Monti, it was supposed to be a routine pilot transfer from a bulk freighter in San Francisco Bay. Instead, the two crewmembers of the pilot vessel Golden Gate found themselves in the midst of a frantic water rescue of two men near the anchored ship. A surveyor was transferring from…

27 Feb

Technological advances helping to take the guesswork out of towline safety

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

Marshall Foss, shown here assisting a bulk carrier in San Francisco Bay, is one of two Foss Maritime tugs testing a system for accurately measuring the strain put on towlines during assist jobs. [Courtesy Foss Maritime] For tug masters, it's perhaps the greatest eternal mystery. Exactly how many jobs can a towline handle before it's in danger of breaking? How…

27 Feb

Perseverance prevails, as tugs wiggle Intrepid free of mud

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News

For the tugboat industry, it's one of the most famous towing operations in years. Yet it almost didn't happen--twice. On Dec. 5, McAllister Towing and Transportation Co. successfully delivered the historic USS Intrepid to dry dock in Bayonne, N.J. For the previous 24 years, the World War II-era aircraft carrier had rested at Pier 86 in Manhattan as part of…