What's New in the Tug and Barge World?

I love all the new ATB stuff that’s going on but what’s new in wireboats these days other than Vane Bro’s pumping out new ones like no tomorrow? I saw that Crowley recently acquired two brand new long-haul wire boats that were built to a Western Towboat design (the [I]Hawaii[/I] and the [I]Washington[/I], maybe?). If I remember correctly, I believe those boats are supposed to do some Eastern-seaboard to Africa type stuff, which sounds pretty interesting. Anyone else heard anything similar going on lately? Any new wireboats coming out of the New York companies (other than Vane)?

[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;144854]I love all the new ATB stuff that’s going on but what’s new in wireboats these days other than Vane Bro’s pumping out new ones like no tomorrow? I saw that Crowley recently acquired two brand new long-haul wire boats that were built to a Western Towboat design (the [I]Hawaii[/I] and the [I]Washington[/I], maybe?). If I remember correctly, I believe those boats are supposed to do some Eastern-seaboard to Africa type stuff, which sounds pretty interesting. Anyone else heard anything similar going on lately? Any new wireboats coming out of the New York companies (other than Vane)?[/QUOTE]
I heard the HAWAII was towing a barge from Engleside to Brazil to Ghana and back. Let’s see… 120 ft 5Khp tug towing a barge straight down hurricane ally at the peak of the season…I would ask…how hungry are my children?

Western Towboat usually has another new boat under construction in their yard. Foss is building at least two similar ice class boats. Sauce Bros is usually building. Harley is building. Most of the west coast tug fleet is 30 or 40 years old and many of the boats are showing their age. Everyone seems to be busy and should be building some new boats.

Some wire boat news.

Poling-Cutler (NY) has acquired the ex Great Lakes Dredge & Dock offshore tug “Melvin Lemmerhirt” and has renamed her “Evelyn Cutler”.
She’s over at Caddell’s now and should be out there working soon. I’m guessing she will relieve the tug “Comet” (Dann Ocean) with that eighty thousand barrel clean oil barge.

Poling had a brand new barge for the Lemmerhirt to move around. The comet with continue doing its thing.

PaddyWest, You’re right, sorry bout the meds crack. The thought of Bouchard being aquired is exciting to me. I decked with Bobby Bouchard for a short time way back when we were both young men in our 20’s. I’m a wire boat dinosaur and proud of it. I like real boat handling too much to have any interest in ATB work.

Safe Travels Bud.

Thanks NYBoatman.
That Lemmerhirt was down at Lyon Shipyard for a very long time before Poling-Cutler acquired her. Was she damaged or something? (if you know) I know she had been rebuilt not too long ago.
A good acquisition for P-C.

The Lemmerhirt was an awesome boat. I love that boat. Nothing was wrong with the boat. They said because of the emissions it produced it ate up too many carbon credits during dredge jobs. They tied it up and laid everyone off of all there tugs til the contract expired. Thats another story.

[QUOTE=NYBoatman;145245]The Lemmerhirt was an awesome boat. I love that boat. Nothing was wrong with the boat. They said because of the emissions it produced it ate up too many carbon credits during dredge jobs. They tied it up and laid everyone off of all there tugs til the contract expired. Thats another story.[/QUOTE]

The real story is the Local 333 crew on the McCormick Boys caused so many headaches to GLD&D management that Steven O’Hara finally had enough and tied both boats up outside of 333 jurisdiction. The crews were warned many times by management before he actually did it. The 333 boys earned their unemployment with their behavior and the Union lost two boats that had operated under the 333 Banner for decades.

I dont know about all of that now.

Im hearing nothing good about the vote to merge MMP + 333, I maybe surprised but I think its a dead horse. Every company I know is hiring, and guys are leaving just as fast. Until the wages come back up I think this is the new normal again.

[QUOTE=NYBoatman;145245]The Lemmerhirt was an awesome boat. I love that boat. Nothing was wrong with the boat. They said because of the emissions it produced it ate up too many carbon credits during dredge jobs. They tied it up and laid everyone off of all there tugs til the contract expired. Thats another story.[/QUOTE]

Always wanted to run that boat but, never got the opportunity. Big, heavy, powerful. My kind of boat.
My old friend Ronnie C___ retired off her I think. I wonder if he is still alive? A good guy and a fine, fine boat handler. We worked together a couple of decades ago dragging container barges around for Hale Container.

It’s to bad that the company’s don’t chose to repower the old McDermott hulls with up to date tier 3 and up emissions engines, those are such great hulls. It’s sad to see the winches cut off and those great hulls carved into ATBs . Some are but not many. Guess it’s easier to just build a new one instead.

[QUOTE=txwooley;144770]Have any of you heard of or used a “Bloodworth” connection system? Basically tapered teeth on the inboard side of the barge wings with a matching set on the sides of the tug bow. A steel plate with a hole in it goes into a slot in the nose of the tug with a huge wedge pressed into it. We had that on the ITB I worked on some years ago. The tug never came out of the notch and went up or down in accordance with the barge ballast. Seemed like such a simple yet effective design.[/QUOTE]

That is very different from the Bludworth system I ran back in the 80s. We had a bow ram that pinched on to a vertical bar in the notch of the barge with greased pads on the sides. The port side pads were moveable to extend out to the sides of the notch. It kinda worked. In four years we only had two ejections. Lovely experience, that. Couldn’t always get the side pads tight since the notch was tapered, wider at the bottom than at the top. Always lots of fun, though. . . . You ought to see the emergency side pad lube system I put in. . . . Not exactly OPA 90 friendly. . .

The only time, in my 3 years of being there, that we came out of the notch was for ABS. It took over 18 hours to release with the barge tied to the dock and 2 tugs pulling side to side while we backed down hard. Apparently, the wedge shaped teeth combined with 5 years of pushing locked that sucker in tight. There were several comments from USCG at the time that if we had to emergency release we were screwed.

What you are talking about sounds more like a ITB not a ATB. On a ITB, the “Tug” portion is locked in and changes draft along with the Barge.

Itb= INTEGRATED

Atb=ARTICULATED

ATB’s can pitch…itbs are locked

Love that good ole Bludworth

I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. Its going to be better then whats in place now.

Wednesday October 8th is the meet and greet with the MMP at the ole 333 stomping grounds in Staten Island. 1000-1400