2012 New Vessels

While not as busy as recent years have been for West Coast shipyards, 2012 nonetheless saw the delivery of a good number of diverse vessels, and the start of enough boats to bode well for 2013.

Among the vessels delivered in 2012 were the two final tugboats of a six-boat order designed by Vancouver, BC’s Robert Allan Ltd. (RAL) and built in Tacoma Washington by J.M. Martinac Shipyard.

The YT-806 Puyallup, delivered in March and the YT-807 Menominee, delivered in May, were built for Pacific Tugboat Services (PTS) of Long Beach, California. PTS was in turn the prime contractor for the delivery of the vessels to the US Navy, for operation at various facilities on Puget Sound, as well as abroad, including Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. The design was developed for the Navy Pilots based on the Z-Tech™ 6000 hull form originally designed for the Port of Singapore.

The boats have an overall length of 90 feet and a molded beam of 38 feet, with a loaded draft of 16 feet.

The propulsion machinery consists of two Caterpillar 3512C, main engines, rated at 1,810 HP at 1,600 rpm and driving a pair of Schottel SRP 1012 azimuthing stern drives with Kort nozzles. This configuration provides 42 tons of bollard pull ahead, 45 tons astern and a running speed of more than 12 knots.

Electrical power on the tugs is delivered by a pair of R.A. Mitchell Co. diesel gensets with a John Deere 6068SFM75 prime mover, each rated 130 kW at 1,800 rpm.

Deck machinery includes a forward-mounted JonRie Series 210 ship-handling hawser winch with 600 feet of 7-inch line. This winch has a brake capacity of 150 tons and a line pull/speed rating of 10 tons at 175 feet per minute.

The fendering is all rated “non-marking” for dealing with the grey hulls of navy vessels, and the boats are equipped with underwater fendering to assist submarines as well as surface ships.

The six tugs are configured as day boats, but also provide accommodation for a crew of up to six.

After the completion of the final Navy tug, Martinac began construction on a cutting edge freezer/longliner for Alaskan Leader fisheries, to be delivered in April of this year. The 184-foot F/V Northern Leader, designed by Seattle’s Jensen Maritime, will utilize diesel electric propulsion and azimuthing stern drives, unprecedented in the North American fishing industry, to allow flexibility in power use and cargo storage.

Throughout 2012, Seattle’s Kvichak Marine Industries delivered twenty-two high-speed aluminum boats to the US Coast Guard from the company’s Response Boat, Medium (RB-M) division, at a rate of roughly two boats per month. The initial contract called for 166 boats, with half to be delivered by Kvichak and the other half to be supplied by Wisconsin’s Marinette Marine. To date, the combined total delivery is roughly 55 boats each.

The company’s commercial division produced two of the 45-foot RB-Ms, with the first being delivered to the Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol Unit in April. Patrol 9 is the 500th hull built at Kvichak’s Ballard facility and will be based at the Harbor Patrol’s facility on nearby Lake Union. The vessel’s primary missions will be marine law enforcement, maritime security, rescue and assistance.

The boat is an all aluminum design, 45 feet by 24.5 feet, with a draft of three feet, designed by Camarc Design, UK and powered by tier II compliant twin Detroit Diesel 60 series engines rated for 825 BHP each, coupled to Twin Disc MG5114SC marine gears driving Rolls Royce Kamewa FF375S waterjets.

A top speed of greater than 40 knots ensures that the Harbor Patrol will be able to apprehend anyone on the water, and two Rescue zones will allow for a variety of lifesaving scenarios. The boat joins two previous Kvichak boats on the force, the 38-footPatrol 2, delivered in 2005 and named after fallen officer Jackson Lone, and Patrol 4, delivered in 1997. In July the company delivered a similar RB-M to the New York City Police Harbor Unit, to supplement the service’s first RB-M, the P.O. Edward Byrne,delivered in 2010.

Also in April, Bellingham, Washington’s All American Marine delivered a multi-mission survey catamaran, R/V Sea Scout, to international surveying and mapping company C&C Technologies, of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The new 134-foot by 37-foot aluminum catamaran, designed by Teknicraft Design Ltd. of Auckland, New Zealand, uses conventional fixed pitch, five-blade propellers, two in each hull, in an unconventional manner. Propulsion is provided by four Caterpillar engines, two C32 models providing 1,600 HP each and two C18 models providing 553 HP each, for a combined total of 2,153 bhp in each hull. The engines are mated to ZF Marine gears, with the two main engines outfitted with ZF 3055A transmissions and the smaller units coupled to ZF 550V transmissions. The unorthodox configuration provides a cruise speed of 20 knots, and a slower survey speed can be achieved by using only the smaller engines.

This configuration is believed to be the first application on a catamaran of quad-propeller propulsion, and the gears coupled to the smaller engines are fitted with trolling valves to provide an economical speed range from 3 to 11 knots. Two more Caterpillar engines power gensets to provide a combined 340 kW of auxiliary power for onboard electrical needs.

In May, venerable Shaver Transportation on the Columbia River christened a 5,360-HP combination ship assist tug designed specifically for the particular job of ship-handling, escort, and related harbor support activity services on the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Designed by Vancouver, BC-based Capilano Marine and built by Portland, Oregon’s Diversified Marine, the 80-foot by 36-foot M/V Sommer S is equipped with a hawser winch and line-handling crane forward and heavy bow fendering for ship assist and escort work. A series of barge handling winches are fitted aft for securing to and pushing bulk barges.

The Sommer S is powered by twin MTU/Detroit Diesel 16V4000 M61 main engines, each rated 2,680 bhp at 1,800 rpm, driving Schottel SRP1215 360-degree azimuthing thrusters with 94.5-inch diameter fixed pitch propellers. The configuration and hull form provide a bollard pull of more than 65 tons, giving her plenty of power for ship assist work in the ports along the lower Columbia River. For ship assist the boat is fitted with a heavy duty DEPCF-48 hawser winch from Markey Machinery, with a 50-hp electric motor. The winch is a single-drum electric hawser winch with fairlead featuring automatic tension-selectable render/recover mode, high braking capacities, and fast line speeds for escort and ship-assist vessels. The winch drum is fitted with 400 feet of 9-inch circumference Spectra/Plasma line in 8 layers and has a brake capacity of 400,000 lbs. minimum, at the second layer. The rated pull is 22,150 lbs. on the second layer at a speed of 67 feet per minute.

Because the vessel performs Columbia River Bar escort work, she was built to American Bureau of Shipping Standard.

Another feature of the Sommer S is the boat’s deck crane, used for line handling, which she has in common with the other ship assist boats in Shaver’s fleet.

Back to Kvichak in May for the delivery of two 40-foot by 16-foot anchor handling utility vessels to Superior Energy Services out of Houston, Texas. The all-aluminum Bear Cub I and Bear Cub II are hard-chined monohulls designed by Kvichak in conjunction with Superior and fitted with a forward skeg along with forward and aft push knees, heated decks and windows.

The new boats are powered by twin Cummins QSB engines rated for 305 BHP each, mated to ZF 305-2 transmissions and driving 4 bladed stainless steel props in nozzles, providing a top speed of 9.5 knots. A 30 HP hydraulic bow thruster provides added maneuverability and station keeping, and a Northern Lights 25kW genset provides auxiliary power.

Deck equipment includes a horizontal winch with 12,000 lbs. of pull, a horizontal capstan, a stern roller and a 1,500 GPM fire pump with monitor. The vessels are also equipped with subsea navigation equipment and a subsea winch, as well as accommodations for two crew.

Along with the actual utility vessels, Kvichak provided two bridge modules, which are reproductions of the actual bridge in these vessels, to serve as training simulators at Superior Energy’s training facility in Anchorage, Alaska. The modules are located in a room with a surround screen of video monitors that display the simulated surroundings of the environments that the vessels will be working in. This allows the company to train their employees to operate the vessels in all conditions. Kongsberg Maritime provided the primary simulation package for the entire simulation system.

In June, Foss Shipyard, in Rainier, Oregon delivered a new steel-hull, aluminum-house pilot boat for the Columbia River. The 63-foot by 17-foot Connor Foss replaced the venerable Arrow 2 that began service on the Columbia River in 1962.

The new boat features twin Caterpillar C18 engines providing 715 HP, mated to Twin-Disc reduction gear and driving a pair of five-bladed, 33-inch diameter conventional propellers, providing operating speeds of zero to 14 knots.

The Connor Foss was designed with conventional propellers rather than waterjets, in order to be able to operate at low speeds, and for the ability to stop the propellers instantly if a pilot goes in the water.

The Connor was designed by Seattle’s Kvichak Marine Industries, based on a pilot vessel currently operating in the United Kingdom, and offers accommodations for four pilots and two crew. A flat and smooth deck and high freeboard with no bulwarks combines with a safety rail that circles the house, as well as a parallel aluminum track with several nylon-wheeled trolleys to which the pilots can attach a safety lanyard, and offers a high level of pilot safety.

Also in June, Seattle’s Kvichak Marine Industries delivered the first of two pilot vessels, the M/V Samuel A. Church, to the Crescent River Port Pilots (CRPPA) of Louisiana. The all-aluminum, 50-foot by 15.5-foot vessel is powered by twin Detroit Diesel 60 series engines rated for 600 BHP coupled to Twin Disc MG5114SC marine gears and driving Hamilton 364 waterjets and providing a top speed of 32 knots. The vessel also features a Wing Hybrid fendering system and a roof-mounted boarding platform specifically designed for the CRPPA. The second and final boat of the series, christened the M/V River Pilot, was delivered in September.

In July, Portland, Oregon’s Zidell Marine delivered the double-hull barge Dr. Bonnie W. Ramsey to Harley Marine Services. The 241-foot by 63-foot by 23-foot barge, designed by Seattle’s Elliott Bay Design Group, is the seventh barge in this class to be delivered to Harley, and features nine cargo tanks with a total capacity of 28,000 barrels of intermediate fuel oil and 3,500 barrels of marine gas oil.

The new barge has two IFO pumps capable of pumping 7,000 barrels per hour and an MGO pump with a 1,500 barrel per hour capacity, driven by two Detroit Diesel Model 60, Tier III diesel engines. A Northern Lights 30-kW, Tier III genset provides auxiliary power. Deck machinery includes a 65-foot hose-handling crane and two 40-ton wire winches. A vapor collection system with 6-inch connections to each tank collects vapors displaced during loading for later recovery.

The Dr. Bonnie W. Ramsey, named after a physician involved in Cystic Fibrosis research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, will operate along the West Coast, and is ABS classed for offshore use.

In September, Crowley Maritime christened the second of its 750 Class articulated tug/barge (ATB) units at Tampa, Florida. The 330,000-barrel capacity tank barge 750-2 and the 16,000-horsepower tugboat Legend will operate along the Gulf and East coasts in conjunction with the first of the 750 Class, the tug Legacy coupled to the barge 750-1, which entered service late last year. The 750-Class ATB barges, built by VT Halter Marine in Pascagoula, Mississippi, are the largest of their type, measuring 600 feet by 105 feet with a deadweight capacity of 45,000 tons while operating on a fully loaded draft of 35 feet. The barges are designed with a notch at the stern, into which the bow of the tug fits, and the two are then mechanically connected.

The 148-foot by 60-foot Legacy-class tugs, whose unique design comes from Naviform in Vancouver, BC, feature two elongated pods below the stern of the vessel, each housing a Wartsila C32 main engine producing 8,000 HP and turning a controllable pitch wheel, to drive the tug and fully-laden barge at 15 knots. The tug/barge units are mated by an Intercon Coupling system, consisting of a pair of port and starboard rams on the tug that engage a continuous rack of teeth on the barge notch wall, allowing the tug to pitch independently of the barge, and completely eliminating any other point of contact between the tug and barge.

The third 750 Class ATB, made up of the tug Liberty and barge 750-3, is expected to enter service within the first half of 2013. This will bring Crowley’s total ATB fleet to 17 units, including four 155,000-barrel and ten 185,000-barrel ATBs.

In October, Seattle’s Harley Marine christened the M/V Kestrel at Halimar Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana. The Kestrel is a 3,000 horsepower tug that measures 94 feet long and 32 feet wide. Although built on the Gulf, Kestrel will operate in Ketchikan, Alaska, towing the petroleum barge PM 230 for Petro Marine Services in Southeast Alaska. The new tug is equipped with two CAT 3512C Tier II engines and two John Deere 6068, 99 kW auxiliaries. Onboard deck machinery includes bow and stern laminated fendering, aircraft tires on both starboard and port sides, a Markey double drum winch and a Markey bow winch.

While the Gulf launched Harley’s latest boat, the Seattle company has three tugs slated for delivery from West Coast yards this year. In Portland, Diversified Marine is putting the finishing touches on the Bob Franco, a 120-foot by 35-foot azimuthing stern drive tug designed by Seattle’s Jensen Maritime. The new boat, to be powered by Tier III CAT C175 engines, will be delivered early this year and based in Seattle. Two more boats for Harley, also designed by Jensen Maritime, are under way at Nichols Bros. Boat Builders in Freeland, Washington. The 103-foot by 40-footRobert Franco will be delivered in the Spring, with the sister boat, Ahbra Franco to follow in mid-summer. The two boats, also for service on the West Coast, will also be fitted with Tier III engines.