The tugs Wedell Foss and Garth Foss, which are based in the Northwest, are among the vessels in the Foss fleet that will be switching to ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. The move will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in the…
Capt. Marc Fankhauser in the pilothouse of the AmNav tug Revolution. (Photos by Alan Haig-Brown) It would be an understatement to call the San Francisco Bay ship docking market highly competitive. As vessel and crew costs escalate, the several fleets…
Ocean Henry Bain is a new tug employing controllable-pitch propellers. The vessel is the third in a series of 5,000-hp z-drive tugs built for Ocean Group, a Quebec company that operates on the St. Lawrence River. The tug has Rolls-Royce…
I am looking for the manufacturer of the articulated tender and ferry barge that operates out of Deer Island, New Brunswick. The barge is the "Hopper I" and the tender "Hopper II". I've attached photos of this very unusual set…
It’s 0430 in New York Harbor and promising to be a very busy day. There’s a line of ships stretched out from the “Con Hook” range to Ambrose Tower. I’m steering from the upper wheelhouse of a 4200 hp tug,…
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…
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…
By Gregory M. Walsh 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…
"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,"…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
It's one of the most revolutionary developments in marine navigation: the universal automatic identification system (AIS). The transponder broadcasts a broad range of information about a ship on VHF marine radio, including its position, speed, direction, cargo, classification and destination.…
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.…
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…
The search for oil and gas has been a driving force in the development of dynamic positioning systems. Drill rigs, for obvious reasons, must maintain a fixed position above the ocean floor. As rigs moved off the continental shelf into…
