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Bay-Houston Towing orders new tugs to raise escort capabilities
Another US owner is investing in a new series of escort tugs to handle larger ships and additional gas carriers entering ports and terminals along the US Gulf Coast
Bay-Houston Towing has contracted Sterling Shipyard to build several low-emissions tugs to Robert Allan Ltd’s RAstar 3200-W design and ABS class for towing, escorting and fire-fighting (FiFi) vessels.
Sterling Shipyard will build these 32-m tugboats at its facilities in Port Neches, Texas, with an installed power of 6,560 kW, azimuth stern drive (ASD) propulsion and 105 tonnes of bollard pull.
“The addition of the RAstar 3200-W tugs further diversifies our fleet and provides an extremely powerful package with enhanced seakeeping features designed to assist the largest ships in all types of environmental conditions,” said Bay-Houston Towing vice president Kevin Lenz.
“The new tugs will complement our large number of existing low-emission vessels as they align with our commitment to provide the industry with high-performing and emission-friendly tugs.”
These escort tugs will have a beam of 14 m, a moulded depth of 5.6 m and propulsion exceeding US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 4 standards for minimising NOx and particulate matter emissions.
They will have twin Caterpillar-manufactured EMD 16 E23B HD engines to power two Schottel model SRP-610 Rudderpropellers, with fixed pitch propellers in nozzles.
This power, and the RAstar hullform, enables these tugs to generate a sustainable steering force of more than 115 tonnes and braking force in excess of 162 tonnes and an escort speed of up to 10 knots.
A pair of John Deere 6090AFM85 generator sets will be compliant with EPA Tier 3 and IMO III environmental requirements and produce 200 ekW of electrical power.
The deck machinery package will consist of a forward winch, aft winch and an aft capstan. The bow will be fitted with more than 240 m of 250-mm diameter synthetic line, made with high modulus polyethylene and layered on a Markey DESF-52-Agile electrically driven hawser winch.
This winch has 150 kW of power, a line tension display, tension set points, scope feedback, and enables these tugs to render and recover the line while maintaining maximum towline forces.
On the stern will be a Markey TES-40UL electric-powered tow winch capable of storing up to 762 m of 63-mm diameter wire rope designed to meet ABS requirements to the notations and classifications of the tug.
Bay-Houston Towing had a series of newbuild RApport 2600 series tugs built by Master Boat Builders for delivery in 2022 and 2023 as part of its low emissions drive.
RApport 2600, ABS-class tugs have two Cat 3512-E HD engines, compliant with EPA Tier 4 standards, linked to a selective catalytic reduction unit to extract NOx from the exhaust and driving two Schottel thrusters of type SRP 430.
They have a total power of 3,300 kW, a bollard pull of around 60 tonnes, a top speed of 12 knots, an overall length of 26 m, a beam of 12 m and a draught of around 5 m.
Bay-Houston Towing’s joint venture, Gulf LNG Tugs, ordered four Z-Tech 30-80 design tugboats, two from Master Boat Builders and another two from Sterling Shipyard, to support gas carrier handling at the new Rio Grande LNG export terminal in Brownsville, Texas.
Bay-Houston Towing serves ports and terminals along the US Gulf Coast with one of the largest, most modern tug fleets.
The majority of its vessels are less than 10 years old and will range in power from 1,270 kW to 6,560 kW, supporting ships calling the ports of Corpus Christi, Freeport, Galveston, Texas City and Houston, and the adjacent offshore areas.
The 27th International Tug & Salvage Convention, Exhibition & Awards will be held in association with Caterpillar in Dubai, UAE, 21-23 May 2024. Use this link for more details of this industry event and the associated social and networking opportunities; and this link to book your ticket for the exhibition, social gatherings and awards night.
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