Gulf Island Fabricators has delivered a new ice-breaking tug to St Lawrence Seaway Development Corp (SLSDC) and Great Lakes Shipyard has launched another hybrid propulsion tugboat
Gulf Island Fabricators president and chief executive Richard Heo said a new icebreaker tug, named Seaway Guardian, was completed and commissioned in June. It undertook sea trials and was delivered to St Lawrence Seaway at the end of June.
“I am proud of our team delivering on our commitments to our clients in spite of today’s challenges,” said Mr Heo.
Gulf Island Fabricators’ shipyard facilities in Houma, Louisiana includes rolling-mill capacity, living-quarters experience, panel-line buildings, large drydocks, large cranes and transporters. It also has shiprepair facilities in Lake Charles and Jennings in Louisiana.
Shipbuilder Washburn & Doughty Associates is also building a new Z-drive harbour tug at its shipyard in Maine for SLSDC.
This will be built to a Glosten HT-60 design in East Boothbay for delivery in 2021 to be used for multiple tasks on the US side of the St Lawrence Seaway including maintaining lock gates and aids to navigation, ice management and removing accumulated ice from lock walls.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Great Lakes Shipyard is completing a new harbour tug after launching it in mid-June. This was built to a Damen Stan tug 1907 Ice design for affiliate Great Lakes Towing Co.
Wisconsin is the fifth in a series of ice-class tugs and like the other four, it has more than 30 tonnes of bollard pull. It is powered by two MTU 8V4000 Tier III diesel engines and has a hybrid power system supplied by Logan FlexaDrive which was also supplied to the other tugs in the series – Cleveland, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Canal Marine & Industrial installed the hybrid propulsion on these tugs. Its chief technology officer Chris Wright told Tug Technology & Business in the Q2 2020 issue these hybrid systems have improved operations and saved Great Lakes Towing money.
“These hybrid systems allow the main engines to be clutched out and shut down for low-level motorised propulsion, which then utilises relatively small and optimally-loaded diesel gensets” he explained. “It is becoming a well-established technique for improving fuel consumption, reducing emissions and reducing maintenance costs,” Mr Wright said.
Great Lakes Shipyard is building the sixth tug in this series, which is due for delivery in Q2 2021.
Propulsion and towage operations will be discussed in depth during Riviera’s Webinar week series in Q3 2020, for more details click here
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.