Tugboats & Towing – Page 276 – Professional Mariner

22 Oct

New tug design goes against high-horsepower trend

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Great Lakes Towing is building two 78-foot prototypes. The tugs' propulsion systems will be in the 2,800- to 3,200-hp range. (Courtesy Jensen Maritime Consultants) Great Lakes Towing is a century-old company that is undergoing a rebirth. At its well-worn shipyard on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, it has built a new $4 million headquarters office building attached to the new…

22 Aug

New company launched by towing industry veterans

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Busy days in the tug industry naturally lead to the establishment of new tug companies. This time it's a classic start-up story courtesy of Dominique and Rachel Smith, both veterans of the towing industry. They have established a one-boat towing company called TradeWinds Towing LLC, based in St. Augustine, Fla.As of early June, Trade-Winds had just completed its first towing…

06 Aug

New tug simulator makes debut at West Coast training facility

Professional Mariner StaffLicensing & Training, Tugboats & Towing

By Gregory M. WalshÂ Pacific Maritime Institute in Seattle has developed a training program incorporating what it said is the only full-scale marine simulation program in the United States developed exclusively for tugboat operators. PMI's marine simulation theater, designed as an actual tugboat wheelhouse, includes full controls for tractor-style tugs and conventional tugs, simulation programs involving typical tugboat scenarios and…

14 May

Foss, with help from port agencies, developing first â€˜green’ tug

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

With hybrid power packages popping up in practically every arena, it was inevitable that the tugboat industry would soon come forth with its own version, especially considering the long history of diesel-electric power for tugboats in the last century and for other types of workboats in the current century. Now it looks as though concern over air pollution in the…

14 May

Class B AIS is coming, growing pains included

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Tugboats & Towing

"All AIS is good; and Class B is going to give people a better picture of what's going on out there, no question about it, but my problem with it is that update rate of just once every 30 seconds," said former tanker captain and current Penobscot Bay pilot Capt. Skip Strong. And he's just one of several AIS experts…

28 Mar

Bouchard’s ATB fleet leads the pack

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

It is hardly a race, but Bouchard Transportation of New York finished up in 2006 with the largest fleet of articulated tug barges (ATBs) in the nation. Other East Coast companies, notably Penn Maritime and K-Sea Transportation, are seemingly working hard to best the Bouchard ATB fleet.At the end of the year Bouchard, which has been converting existing tug-barge assets…

22 Mar

Towing winches: Brute machines for offshore tugs

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Aside from those massive diesel engines, the real brute force found at the heart of every offshore tugboat is its towing winch. Almost nothing is towed in offshore waters without a towing winch. And no matter how modern the rest of a tug's equipment, the towing winch has changed little from its original design. The winches that get all…

01 Mar

Compelling electronic displays may have contributed to collision

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

Over-reliance on an electronically integrated navigation system by an inadequately trained operator may have played a significant role in a collision between Atlantic Huron and the Canadian Coast Guard buoy tender Griffon in September 2000, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has concluded. The collision occurred on western Lake Erie at night in good visibility. The Coast Guard vessel was…

28 Feb

Integrating AIS with other bridge electronics

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Tugboats & Towing

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was originally conceived as a safety and navigation aid for ships at sea. Mandated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and implemented and enforced by member states, AIS provides information otherwise unavailable to a crew. AIS transponders act as conduits for information about a vessel, gathering both dynamic data about a ship, such as position,…

28 Feb

In response to terror concerns, AIS website limits access to live data

Professional Mariner StaffTugboats & Towing

A British-based company has stopped offering on its free website live, detailed automatic identification system (AIS) data gathered from networks worldwide after a shipping organization complained terrorists or pirates could use the information to endanger shipping. AIS Live Ltd., a Dutch-British company decided to limit vessel information on its public website and restrict the more detailed service to annual subscribers,…