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 New Barge Developments By MORAN “I can see that this is the way of the future,” said Bill Sanford, captain aboard the MORAN tug Scott Turecamo. “It’s pretty obvious that this is the way towing is going to go – period.” Instead of delivering barges by towing, with occasional periods of notch-pushing, the Scott Turecamo today almost never leaves the notch as she pushes MORAN’s newest barge, the 427-foot double-hulled New Hampshire, under charter to Conoco-Phillips, along routes in the Northeast. “For us it’s a steady 10 knots, with cargo or in ballast, very predictable, and it is rarely influenced by weather,” said Sanford. “But the best part may be that we can go from start to finish with the crew never having to touch the towing gear. That’s a huge benefit,” he added. Crewmembers aboard the Scott Turecamo rarely get involved with towing gear nowadays because the tug and her new barge are both equipped with an articulated coupler system which keeps the tug almost permanently in the notch. The tug’s original towing winch, still situated on the stern, and all that wire, along with deck sheaves, shackles, fish plates and chafing gear, gets little use. Jack Austin, alternate captain aboard Scott Turecamo, said it did not take him long to adjust to the new towing system. “Believe me, it was very easy to make the transition to not having to worry about a towline,” he said. “The wire was just gone. Now we don’t lose time making the transition over and over again from tow wire to notch and back again, and we are rarely weatherbound.” Introduction of the new 110,000 barrel New Hampshire in January, 2005, marks MORAN’s first use of articulated coupler technology. The new barge, with 78-foot beam and 26-foot loaded draft, is connected to her tug with a pin system developed by Intercontinental Engineering. This allows the tug to operate efficiently and safely within the barge notch in virtually all weather conditions. Tugs in an ATB system are locked into the barge notch in a way that allows the tug to pitch on its own motion, independent of the barge’s pitch. The tug and barge are locked together with common rolling motion, however. “Once we are hooked in we stay there,” said Jack Austin. “From then on we are just like a 500-foot ship with a hinge in it.” While the New Hampshire is the first of two identical barges constructed for MORAN by Bay Shipbuilding of Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., the Scott Turecamo is one of two tugs from the company’s existing fleet being converted to match the new barges. The second tug to be similarly reconfigured is the sister-tug Barney Turecamo. First put into service in 1998, the 121-foot twin-screw Scott Turecamo had, until now, been devoted to one of several 18,000 dwt powder cement barges belonging to Lafarge Cement, a long-time contract customer. Refurbished at the end of 2004 at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, the tug underwent extensive rearrangement of her interior spaces, with the addition of two 25- ton load boxes containing the Intercon pin equipment, and construction of a new steel tower leading to a new 300 square foot pilothouse with 55 foot height of eye. “If you are going to be pushing a barge all the time, you’ve got to have a good-size pilothouse,” said naval architect Bob Hill who worked on both the tug and barge along with naval architects Paul Gow and Corning Townsend. The tug’s new pilothouse, measuring 20 feet across and 15 feet front to back, incorporates four different control stations plus space for a full suite of navigation and communications gear. The entire pilothouse and tower, requiring more than a mile of new wiring, comes with a weight of about 70 tons, according to Hill, but that is not much more than the combined weight of the tug’s former lower wheelhouse plus the smaller elevated pilothouse that was there previously, he added. The tug’s former lower wheelhouse has been converted to a new stateroom for the captain and a ship’s office. Read Page Two Of Story |
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50 Locust Avenue | New Canaan, CT 06840-4737 USA | Tel: 203.442.2800 |
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