US tug and towboat owners have taken delivery of new vessels to expand their fleets for inland waterways transportation and ship assistance
Plimsoll Marine is the latest to unveil a new push boat on the Lower Mississippi River. It took delivery of Rock Solid from Master Marine Inc. This has an overall length of 20.4 m and breadth of 8.5 m. It was designed by Entech Designs and is fully compliant with all US Coast Guard regulatory requirements.
Rock Solid is the third vessel in a series Master Marine has built for Plimsoll Marine, a subsidiary of Cooper Group. “The delivery of Rock Solid marks another milestone in our effort to build and maintain our industry’s most modern and capable fleet of push boats,” said Cooper president Angus R Cooper III. “Our team prides itself on serving our industry as the premier push-boat service provider on the Lower Mississippi River and our continued investment in the Plimsoll fleet is a testament to our pledge to always return the highest level of value to our customers,” he said.
The towboat is powered by two Laborde Products-supplied Mitsubishi 803 HP diesel marine engines, compliant with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 3 emissions requirements. They operate at 1,400 rpm and are coupled to Twin Disc 5321 gears.
Laborde Products also supplied electrical power with two Northern Lights 65-kW Tier 3 electronic-controlled generators with RW Fernstrum keel coolers throughout.
A pair of Sound Propeller Services 178-cm diameter, four-blade, stainless steel propellers provide thrust through two J & S Machine Works, ABS Grade propeller shafts, all with Thordon bearings, Thorplas bushings and shaft seals. Rio Controls and Hydraulic supplied the steering system for the two main and four flanking rudders, all 18 cm long.
Entech Designs also designed new towboat Chris Miller, which was built by Eymard Shipyard, which was christened at the start of March by new owner Maritime Partners.
In California, Foss Maritime welcomed its new ship-handling tug Leisa Florence at its new home in Long Beach. This azimuth stern drive (ASD) tug was built by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders at its facilities in Freeland, Washington state during Q4 2020, as the third in a series of ASD-90 class tugs built to Jensen Maritime’s Valor design with 90 tonnes of bollard pull.
A fourth tug newbuilding, Rachael Allen, is scheduled to be completed in 2021, and others could follow.
Tug operations, propulsion technologies, safety and stability issues will be discussed during Riviera’s first ITS TUGTECHNOLOGY Webinar Week on 29-31 March - use this link for more details and to register for these webinars
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