Power Play

Tug companies continue to add more horsepower.

By Betsy Frawley Haggerty, Correspondent

The Capt. Brian A. McAllister assists the 971' ACL ro-ro/containership (ConRo) Atlantic Sun near the Bayonne Bridge in Staten Island, N.Y.

Ultra large neo-Panamax containerships, stringent Tier 4 emissions rules and Subchapter M safety requirements have been game changers for the tug industry in recent years, leading several companies to upgrade their fleets.

“The neo-Panamax ships are absolutely the reason we started building these powerful vessels,” said Buckley McAllister, president of New York-based McAllister Towing and Transportation. “We now have five of them.”

The five tugs are the Capt. Brian A. McAllister, Rosemary McAllister, Ava McAllister, Capt. Jim McAllister and Eileen McAllister. The first four are nearly identical 100'×40', 6,700-hp, Tier 4 escort Z-drives designed by Jensen Maritime Consultants, Seattle, and built at Horizon Shipbuilding (now Metal Shark), Bayou La Batre, Ala., and Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla. The tugs went into service between August 2017 and August 2019, with the Brian and Ava working in New York, the Rosemary in Norfolk, Va., and Capt. Jim in Charleston, S.C.

The fifth, the 93'×38', 6,700-hp, Eileen McAllister, was launched in late January at Washburn & Doughty Associates Inc., East Boothbay, Maine. “It has a slightly smaller hull, but the same power,” McAllister said. When complete, it will work out of Port Everglades, Fla.

The 2016 widening of the Panama Canal and the raising of the Bayonne Bridge clearance from 150' to 215' in 2017 changed ship traffic in New York Harbor and elsewhere. “Before that, bridge height limited ships to about 5,000 TEUs. Now 14,000-TEU vessels have become a regular part of our business,” McAllister said. “New York Harbor sees 15 or 16 neo-Panamax containerships every week, and Norfolk and Charleston also see regular calls from these vessels.” Asked about new regulations, McAllister said that Subchapter M has raised the bar for the company. “We will be retiring some of our older equipment where the upgrades don’t make economic sense and building new tugs. No question, the tugboat industry is becoming much more capital intensive.”

LOWER MISS TUGS

Shipdocking companies on the Lower Mississippi River have also added more powerful tugs to handle the larger oceangoing ships that they must dock with five-plus mph of current running in the river. “Our customers wanted more power,” said Jonathan Davis, senior captain and vice president of training at Bisso Towboat Co., Luling, La. New regulations came into play as well.

In October, the company took delivery of the 100'×38', 6,008-hp Andrew S., the first Tier 4, ASD tractor tug built for use on the Mississippi River. Main Iron Works, Houma, La., which has built several tractor tugs for the company, worked closely with Bisso to modify a proven design to add the SCR Tier 4 emissions system, additional bollard pull and Subchapter M safety features. “We had to follow a whole different set of guidelines that added to the cost of the tug, probably in the neighborhood of 20%,” Davis said.

In January, Bisso Offshore LLC, a division of E.N. Bisso & Son, New Orleans, La., added to its fleet with an 80'×38', 5,100-hp Tier 4 Subchapter M tug, the C.D. White. Designed by Robert Allan Ltd., Vancouver, Canada, the RAL RApport 2400 Z-drive shiphandling tug was built at Eastern Shipbuilding. The second RAL Z-drive for Bisso Offshore, the A. Thomas Higgins, was launched at Eastern on Jan. 31. E.N. Bisso has taken delivery of five previous Z-drive ship assist tugs from Eastern starting in 2007.

A trio of tug companies, looking for more economical and environmentally friendly operations, have turned to hybrid propulsion.

Hybrid Power

At the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans in December, John Buchanan, president of Harbor Docking & Towing Co. LLC in Lake Charles, La., said hybrids are a viable option for the tug industry because they are more economical to run.

Last year HDT began operating the 93'×38' Ralph and the Capt. Robb. A pair of Tier 4 2,550-hp Caterpillar 3512E main engines plus two ABB electric thruster motors, rated at 800-hp each, power the tugs. Completing the hybrid package are two 565-kW Caterpillar generators and a single 200-kW Cat C7.1 genset to provide power to the Cat MTA 628 Z-drives. Batteries are not required for power storage.

The boats, built at Washburn & Doughty, are the first two tugs in the U.S. with Caterpillar hybrid propulsion systems. Buchanan said they chose hybrid power because they were looking for a technology that matched their needs in the 35-mile long Calcasieu Ship Channel. “We wanted high horsepower — at least 80 metric tons of bollard pull — for moving ships, but we only need that a small percentage of the time, and this system allows us to scale up and scale down,” Buchanan said, explaining that the benefits of a hybrid system are quick throttle response from the thruster motors, better escort maneuverability in tight channels, and fewer running hours on the main engines. This means reduced maintenance, minimum fuel burn in transit and increased redundancy.

Great Lakes Towing Co., Cleveland, which operates 30 tugs in 12 ports from Duluth, Minn., to Buffalo, N.Y., has been modernizing its fleet with a series of five Damen Stan Tug 1907 ICE design harbor tugs being built at the company’s shipyard. The tug Michigan, launched last year and stationed in Cleveland, is the third in the series. It is the company’s first fully hybrid tug. It’s powered by two 1,000- hp MTU 8V4000 Tier 3 diesel engines. Its propulsion system includes a Logan FlexaDrive Hybrid power system, which allows the tug to operate on electric power while at idle, underway at low speeds, or under low loads, without the need to utilize the main engines.

Nichols Brothers is also building four 100'×40', 8,000-hp Tier 4 ASD tractor tugs for Foss Maritime, Seattle. The tugs will have ship assist, escort and towing capabilities. Designed by Jensen Maritime, the vessels are based on Jensen’s Valor-class design, with high-efficiency catalytic aftertreatment technology to meet Tier 4 standards. Delivery of the first tug is scheduled for the winter of 2020.

The next two tugs in the series, the Pennsylvania and the Wisconsin, will be identical. They are slated for launching in the spring and summer. The 100'×40', 5,300-hp Delta Teresa, the latest tractor tug for San Francisco’s Baydelta Maritime, is the company’s first with hybrid power. Designed by Jensen and built at Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, Wash., the tug can operate in different power modes — direct-diesel, diesel- electric or fully electric. This provides fuel savings and reduced emissions.

The flexible drive system allows the tug to make transits and loiter at speeds up to 7 or 8 knots in its electric-only mode. In combined diesel-electric mode, the additional electric power input lends an additional nine short tons of bollard pull for a total 90 tons.

Reinauer Transportation Companies, Staten Island, N.Y., is taking a new approach to environmental issues. The company has 24 tugs including 21 for articulated tug-barge units (ATBs), with three tugs added since 2018 — the 124'×40', 7,200-hp Bert Reinauer; 106'×33', 4,400-hp Josephine; and the 107'×33', 4,200-hp Kristy Ann. All were built at the company’s Rhode Island shipyard, Senesco Marine. A fourth 4,200-hp tug is under construction. All are powered by GE Tier 4-certified marine engines. But those may be the last tugs Reinauer builds for some time.

“The petroleum industry in America is pretty stagnant right now, and it is not increasing,” said Josh Diedrich, former shipyard manager and current director of business development for Reinauer’s new company, Windserve Marine. Reinauer wanted to diversify, and alternative energy seemed the best route. “This is why we are building our first purpose-built wind vessel at Senesco. This is the end of our newbuild program for oil transportation and the beginning of our newbuild program for offshore wind.”

The Capt. Brian A. McAllister assists the 971' ACL ro-ro/containership (ConRo) Atlantic Sun near the Bayonne Bridge in Staten Island, N.Y.