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Mississippi ASD tractor tug named
A US vessel owner has named its latest river-based azimuth stern drive tugboat as part of its fleet renewal programme
Bisso Towboat named its latest tugboat Mr Brian in a ceremony on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, USA, in December 2024. This azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugboat was built by Main Iron Works in Houma, Louisiana, as the sixth ASD tractor tug built by the shipyard in the past nine years for the owner.
Bisso Towboat’s fleet supports ships along the Mississippi River and the owner is the only ship-assist company on the river with a daily operating fleet of 100% ASD tractor tugs.
Mr Brian has an overall length of 31 m, a beam of 12 m, a hull depth of 4 m and a bollard pull of 68 tonnes. This comes from propulsion consisting of two Caterpillar 3516E main diesel engines generating 1,865 kW each at 1,600 rpm, compliant with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 4 emissions standards, and two Kongsberg US205S Z-drives, each with 2,400-mm four-blade stainless steel propellers in stainless steel nozzles.
Other features include US Coast Guard-approved engineroom monitoring and fire/smoke alarm systems, a fixed CO2 fire extinguishing system, Simrad navigation and wheelhouse electronics, soundproof insulation throughout the engineroom and crew quarters, stainless steel bitts and bow staple.
Tanks on Mr Brian can store 137,100 litres of diesel, 50,000 litres of potable water, 8,300 litres each of lube and hydraulic oil and 9,100 litres of diesel exhaust fluid. Electrical service is provided by two 118-kW Caterpillar generators powered by two Caterpillar C4.4 engines.
This tug is equipped with a JonRie Series 240 escort winch featuring 3,000 m of 2 ¾-inch diameter Saturn 12 line and it has accommodation for four crew members.
Mr Brian was named after Brian Cyprowski, who is the Bisso Towboat’s vice president of operations and a member of the company’s executive team. He has been with the company for 37 years.
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