An ice management vessel, two towboats and two harbour vessels have been completed by US shipyards
US shipyards also secured new vessel orders in August, including two escort tugs, as owners continue to modernise and expand their fleets.
New York Power Authority has taken delivery of a shallow-draught tug for ice management at its Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant. Breaker II is a 17-m tug designed by Bristol Harbor Group and built by Blount Boats in Rhode Island.
It will be employed to prevent ice from clogging the intakes to the hydroelectric power plant. Its owner will also use Breaker II to deploy and remove ice booms within the upper Niagara River.
Blount Boats said this is the first tug built at its yard to US Coast Guard Subchapter M certification for towing vessels. The twin-screw tug is powered by twin Caterpillar C-9 engines, complying with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 3 emission requirements, and has two Caterpillar Tier 3 C2.2 marine generator sets.
Also in August, Maritime Partners continued its fleet expansion with the delivery of a second towboat in its latest newbuilding series.
C&C Marine and Repair delivered Brooks M. Hamilton at the end of August from its Belle Chasse, Louisiana, shipyard. The 25.5-m towboat was designed by Entech Design and has two Cummins QSK38-M1 main engines. C&C Marine is building 13 more towboats for Maritime Partners.
Earlier in August, L&L Marine Transportation took delivery of a towboat newbuilding from Rodriquez Shipbuilding. Amelia Ray was also designed by Entech as a twin-screw towboat. It is running petrochemical products along the coast and inland waterways between Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Two other US shipyards have completed harbour vessels for operators in the region. Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding delivered a Chesapeake-class pilot boat to the Seaway Pilots Inc. This aluminium vessel will transfer pilots to and from ships in the St Lawrence Seaway between Port Weller on Lake Ontario and St Regis, New York state. The 16-m vessel is powered by two Volvo Penta D16 diesel engines and has a top speed of 23 knots.
Metal Shark has completed a 26-m aluminium patrol vessel for the Dominican Republic’s Navy. Its hull is based on a Damen Shipyards design and its main propulsion comes from twin Caterpillar C-32 marine diesel engines.
Also in August, Portland, Oregon, shipbuilder Diversified Marine Inc secured contracts to build two more harbour tugs for Washington-state headquartered Brusco Tug & Barge. These will be built to a Robert Allan RApport 2500 design for delivery in 2021.
These new escort tugs will have two Caterpillar Cat 3516 main engines, complying with EPA Tier 4 and IMO Tier III emissions requirements driving two MTA 627 azimuth thrusters with 2.7 m propellers. They are similar to another RApport 2500-design tug Diversified Marine built for Brusco in 2019.
This tug was initially named Noydena, but was chartered to Crowley for ship handling services in Puget Sound and renamed Hercules, when it featured in Tug Technology & Business in a newbuild profile.
Hercules is an azimuth stern drive tug with an overall length of 25 m and moulded beam of 12.2 m. It has a free running speed of 12 knots and bollard pull of 89 tonnes ahead and 87 tonnes astern.
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