When the time came to upgrade Great Lakes Towing Co.’s fleet, com-pany President Joe Starck wanted a design that matched the existing boats’ capabilities while adding power and versatility.
With the Damen Stan 1907 ICE class, a 65-foot workhorse already working ports around the world, he found what he was looking for. Great Lakes is building the first vessel, Cleveland, at its Cleveland shipyard along Lake Erie. Delivery is set for June 2017.
The company plans to build at least nine more of the twin-screw, 2,000-hp tugs in the coming years. Each vessel in this Great Lakes class will be built to ABS Class A1 towing vessel rules. Cleveland is expected to be the first such vessel operating in the United States built specifically to meet U.S. Coast Guard Subchapter M standards.
“The boat is really a modern-day version of the simple tug that we have been operating for over 100 years,” Starck said in a recent interview at the company’s Cleveland headquarters. “It’s very similar in size (to our existing tugs), it’s twin-screw as opposed to single screw, 2,000 hp as opposed to most of our tugs, which are in the 1,500hp range, and it’s nearly doubling our bollard pull,” he continued.
Nearly 40 Damen Stan 1907 ICE-class tugs are already working around the world, including in cold weather ports in the Netherlands and Russia. These tugs are capable of ship handling, docking, icebreaking and towing in the Great Lakes and along the coast. They can be crewed with two people to reduce operations costs. Coming in under 79 feet also simplifies the U.S. regulatory picture.
“Its main function is towing, pushing, mooring, it can (perform) firefighting,” said Mark Honders, manager of design and licenses with Damen Shipyards in Gorinchem, Netherlands. “It’s pretty versatile. It can be used for any type of operation you want to do in the harbor.”
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Esta historia es de la edición American Tugboat Review 2017 de Professional Mariner.
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