Page 35: of Marine News Magazine (June 2006)

34 36

over the price to the dock.

Capt. Roehrig still sees a bountiful future in the spot market. He might even say there's more demand than supply. "There are plenty of tugboats out there," he com- ments, "but a lot of them have been married to their barges. If the barge is sitting out there, the tug is probably with it."

It happens often enough that the tug goes off to do something else. But what if that something takes longer than expected? And the moment arrives to deliver the barge? Sometimes dispatchers opt to not break up the set.

Another thing they say these days is there's a manpow- er shortage, and that the era of picking a crew off the

Bowery is over. Capt. Roehrig speaks of tugs in the Gulf that are already laid-up for want of personnel. There may be different causes between the north and the south, but the result is the same. And in New York, they say that six tugboat skippers have gone to work for the ferries.

As Capt. Roehrig describes it, "at low water you've got all the tugs you want, at high water you can't find a tug.

It's gametime."

The independents have always been vital in the harbor mechanism, moreso today as tugs differentiate. Maybe there was a time when the same tug that towed a barge could also dock a clipper, but a pinboat with a 70-ft. height-of-eye is nobody's first choice for the QM2.

Besides the right boat and crew, the independent sup- plies all that's connected -- administration and such. A customer grows in capacity without the same growth in overhead. In some businesses, they call it outsourcing.

The first four Roehrig tugs were ideal for the spot mar- ket when the company began, and all but the Tilly keep at it today. But long-haul transportation has become a New

York mainstay. It's what Bouchard does, and Hornbeck, and K-Sea, and Penn, and Reinauer. They all have plenty of boats, but always enough?

June, 2006 • MarineNews 35

Circle 278 on Reader Service Card 27-ft eXtreme PilotMaster

Building Top Grade Multi-Mission Workboats for Over Twenty-five Years x 5086 Aluminum Hull with Inflatable or Hybrid Foam Collar x Non-continuous Dead Rise x Built for Commercial Service x Easy Maintenance Above Deck Full Wire Way Cabinet x Slot Woven Integral Framing for Superior Longevity 605 South Riverside Drive Seattle WA. 98108 www.northwindmarine.com (206) 767-4497

Circle 263 on Reader Service Card

Emma M. Roehrig

Emma M. Roehrig makes up to KTC 80 in the Narrows as the sun peeks over Bay Ridge. Emma joined the fleet in 19xx, the first in the succession of Roehrig boats reaching out past the harbor. (Photo:

Don Sutherland)

Capt. Chris Roehrig at the desk he now steers, after driving his own tugs for years before and, before that, working from the deck up for most of the New York majors. (Photo: Don Sutherland)

JUNE MN2006 5(33-40).qxd 6/2/2006 11:01 AM Page 35