They used to be the only company in town…
Done in Boston as well after 5 or so years. Times change I guess. Guess the boats are being distributed to McAllister on the east coast.
Done in the Columbia river tidewater bought them.
They are probably calling it restructuring, or stream lining or some shit around the office.
Nah, the suits are taking a play from our book. They’re calling it “stick it to the Working Man”.
Foss Maritime operated two Super D boats about 1800HP, flanking rudders, nozzles… The Pacific Queen and Pacific Knight. Over the years many other of their boats have spent time down here in San Diego.
Crowley came in with the Saturn and Spartan (stronger, longer and less maneuverable) around 1999.
The competition went fine for a long time as most of the work went to whichever company had a coastwide contract with the shipping company for ship assist. Eventually Crowley seemed to get about 75%, Foss 25%… But the real hammer came down with the State of California emission requirements for marine diesels. This is the last year these boats can operate in California (unless its only a few hours per year?)
So Foss decided not to repower the old boats. Crowley says they will bring the regions first tractor tug to replace Saturn… Not sure if another will replace Spartan or if Spartan will be repowered.
Sad to see the Pacific Knight and its IBU crew clear the harbor… The tug Captain Myron let me know over the VHF that after 20 years there he will be applying for unemployment today for the first time in his life. Just sucks.
I always liked those foss boats out in SD, seemed like handy boats with good crews. I remember the spectacle of watching them wrestle the a few new t-ake ships when they slid down the ways.
They won’t be missed too much on the east coast from what I gather.
“Handy” is a good way to put it… Fit under flare of Navy bows and in tight shipyard quarters… What they lacked in HP they made up in tug Captain skill.
Over in Boston Saltchuck did not make their speculated 11.5% ROI. I guess they couldn’t wait any longer despite a steady rise over the last few years.
Yeah saw that coming about 5 years ago when they pulled out of the upriver work, feel bad for those who have to start over again.
The old Lewiston from Foss upriver days, sold to Olympic Tug & Barge and renamed the Willamette Champion.
that sucks!.. I live in PB and did some part time work as AB several years ago. It was a sweet job but they were super slow and I couldnt get full time work. I heard they can barely keep the guys in LBC working…
[QUOTE=acesouthcoast;109962]that sucks!.. I live in PB and did some part time work as AB several years ago. It was a sweet job but they were super slow and I couldnt get full time work. I heard they can barely keep the guys in LBC working…[/QUOTE]
As far as LB goes, like any other good union job, it will take a lot of 15 hour pay periods before you get your senority. Then it takes a few years to get a shift. The thing thats bad for those SD guys is its not like they can move over to LB. Their senority doesn’t apply over there so it would be starting over. Plus LB has no more conventional boats doing ship assist.
[QUOTE=Ctony;109987]As far as LB goes, like any other good union job, it will take a lot of 15 hour pay periods before you get your senority. Then it takes a few years to get a shift. The thing thats bad for those SD guys is its not like they can move over to LB. Their senority doesn’t apply over there so it would be starting over. Plus LB has no more conventional boats doing ship assist.[/QUOTE]
Ive lived in SD for 5 years now but I still work out of NY harbor and have a good union job. I tried to break in on the west coast and it was pretty difficult. I havent given up on a west coast job yet but I sympathize with cpt. Myron and the other guys cuz I know its hard to break in particularly in LBC. Its a shame their senority doesnt rollover in LBC. Although a bit awkward at first, Im sure they could figure out how to steer a z-drive in a reasonable amount of time. The challenge would most likely be learning how to work with new docking pilots.
What are 15 hour pay periods? Whats a shift? I typically work for 3 weeks then I have 3 weeks off. I guess everything in LBC is dayboats.
AIS from marinetraffic.com shows the relatively new Crowley tractor tug Valor in San Diego now. Last known position of the Saturn was down near G street in Chula Vista. Marine Group / Boat Works is located at the end of the street. That boatyard did the repower on the tractor tug Admiral for Crowley. The yacht my uncle is captain of was in for maintenance at the same time as Admiral, said the voith schnieder drive’s are pretty wild looking.
[QUOTE=Starboard Ten;109656].
Crowley says they will bring the regions first tractor tug to replace Saturn… Not sure if another will replace Spartan or if Spartan will be repowered.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=acesouthcoast;110014]Ive lived in SD for 5 years now but I still work out of NY harbor and have a good union job. I tried to break in on the west coast and it was pretty difficult. I havent given up on a west coast job yet but I sympathize with cpt. Myron and the other guys cuz I know its hard to break in particularly in LBC. Its a shame their senority doesnt rollover in LBC. Although a bit awkward at first, Im sure they could figure out how to steer a z-drive in a reasonable amount of time. The challenge would most likely be learning how to work with new docking pilots.
What are 15 hour pay periods? Whats a shift? I typically work for 3 weeks then I have 3 weeks off. I guess everything in LBC is dayboats.[/QUOTE]
Foss in LB are all day boats with exception of the el segundo boat which is live-aboard, and the super-d boat that does the SNI run when it happens. Four days on four days off then five on and four off etc… Some are crewed up around the clock and switch out every twelve hours and some aren’t. It takes a while to get into a shift. Then there are guys who like working on their time off their shift so if you are new coming into the game with a dispatch you can count on starving a bit because the call out work is getting taken by the shift guys working on their time off…which refers to the “15 hour” pay periods. I was there over five years ago but that was the jist of it when I was there…assuming it hasn’t changed much.
PTS (Pacific Tugboat Service) has older conventional boats of various sizes in SD and LA/LB and they are trying to unionize with the IBU now. They do mostly construction, barge work and yard repair but have helped with ship assist in the SD shipyards. When they go union they will be allowed to work the Marine terminals too.
They should be able to assist Crowley with supplying tugs in SD to make up for the loss of Foss although their boats are generally not as good for ship assist in most cases.
They have the Clara Foss I think?
Thanks alot for all that info. It would be pretty amazing to work on a day boat and at least be close to home if not home every night or day depending on your shift but it seems pretty much impossible to get in without starving. Flying across the country to NY for the past 5 years has been a pain but im making a decent buck with a stable company so I probably shouldnt bitch to much. you either work your butt off in Alaska for the summer or somehow score a dayboat job if you want to work on the west coast, at least thats the general feeling I got after applying for several jobs out here. I also interviewed at hawaiian towing/young brothers for a mates job and was pretty horrified by how low the pay was. If i knew someone who worked there and could tell me more about the company i would consider a pay cut just for the experience of working in Hawaii. In the mean time I guess I will continue flying to NY.
The deal fell through, Tidewater pulled out so in the mean time think Foss is still looking for a buyer in the P.N.W.