Tugboats & Towing – Page 271 – Professional Mariner

15 Aug

The ASD tractor becomes the all-American tugboat

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

The ASD tug Lynne Moran working with an LNG tanker at an LNG terminal in Freeport, Texas, that opened earlier this year [Brian Gauvin photos] Were it not for Edison Chouest Offshore, American tugboat companies might have turned in a perfect record in the past few years: Americans just don’t go for the “true” tractor-tug design. Whether it’s a tendency…

18 Jul

Change in sea-time requirement for tug mates prompts safety concerns

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

The timber barge Swiftsure Prince began listing after breaching its hull in the Queen Charlotte Islands. The barge was later deliberately run aground. A proposed reduction in the sea-time requirements for becoming a mate of a towing vessel of 200 tons or more has many in the industry concerned. The rule change is designed to provide an alternative path for…

16 May

Dann Marine shows off impressive new wire towing vessel: Treasure Coast

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Treasure Coast. (Brian Gauvin). Dann Marine Towing, a mid-Atlantic family-operated company that has been in the tug business for some five generations, recently introduced the 16th tug in its fleet, a 104-footer delivered from Rodriguez Boat Builders of Alabama. This 3,000-hp, twin-screw tug, Treasure Coast, with elevated pilothouse, was designed and built specifically for towing oil barges on the Eastern…

07 May

Great Lakes Shipyard unveils low-power tug

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Crowley’s Vigilant, a 6,772-hp z-drive tug chartered from Baydelta Maritime, will provide escort services in Cook Inlet, Alaska. As fuel prices continue to skyrocket, a century-old Midwestern tug company is introducing a new line of low-powered tugs as it expands its Cleveland shipyard.Great Lakes Shipyard of Cleveland held a naming ceremony for its first “handysize” tug, Handy-One, on April…

07 May

Crew boat built to perform and to entertain

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Greater Scott is a 160-footer built by Neuville Boat Works for Texas Crewboats. The 160-by-30-foot Greater Scott was delivered from Neuville Boat Works, New Iberia. La., to Texas Crewboats, Freeport, Texas, in January. She is the seventh boat in the fleet of the company founded by Elliott Cundieff in 1979. Greater Scott is contracted to Nippon Oil, servicing a…

02 May

Fuel management for tugs becoming an increasing challenge

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Tugboats & Towing

The Sause Bros. tug Mikiona was designed for fuel efficiency with electronically controlled engines from MTU Detroit Diesel, Reintjes reduction gears, three-blade skewed propellers from Sound Propellers, NautiCan nozzles and NautiCan linked quad rudders. (Ron Karabaich) The cost of fuel has become a major expense item for every company in the transportation business, possibly more so for tugboats because their…

22 Apr

As DP systems grow in importance, the technology continues to improve

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

A RADius 1000 distance-measuring transmitter on Seacor’s John G. McCall. Manufactured by Kongsberg, the RADius system uses radar technology for close-in positioning situations in which GPS signals may not be accurate. (Photo courtesy Gulf Craft) Dynamic positioning may be the most important shipboard navigation system since the compass. Once used only on the largest offshore vessels working in the deepest…

09 Apr

Texas archbishop blesses newest Buffalo Marine towboat

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo blesses San Kennedy, a new Buffalo Marine towboat. The new 62-foot long, 1,320-hp towboat San Kennedy was blessed by the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Daniel N. DiNardo, on Feb. 1 at Buffalo Marine Services headquarters on the Houston Ship Channel. With the blessing of San Kennedy, Buffalo Marine Services now has 13 towboats along with 28 tank…

03 Mar

New tug simulator will incorporate operating characteristics of winch and line

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

This digital rendering depicts the way the Energia Costa Azul liquefied natural gas project in Baja California will look upon completion of the marine terminal. The 2,100-foot-long breakwater is designed to protect a one-ship berth. Four escort tugs with a bollard pull of 75 tons are being built in Spain for Moran Towing. MarineSafety International is programming its tug…

03 Mar

Economical heavy fuel oil finding its way into the tugboat industry

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Crowley Resolve is a new 9,280-hp ATB. Crowley estimates that it cost several million dollars in additional construction costs to make the vessel capable of burning heavy fuel oil. (Courtesy Crowley Maritime) My theory about bunker fuel is that the stuff is misnamed. Modern fuels have nothing to do with bunkers. The phrase bunker fuel, like many other phrases and…