Page 25: of Marine News Magazine (January 2, 2010)

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Continental. As that company teetered a couple years ago, the plan- ners at K-Sea identified the tug's adaptability to a JAK coupling system and a new double-skin barge sched- uled for the near future. Meanwhile, there was plenty to keep the tug busy locally.

Normandy was the original name of the second sister, built and operated by Metropolitan Transportation of

Staten Island, N.Y. She became avail- able when her owner adopted a small- er tug suited to the local region, in lieu of the coastwise work for which the Normandy was designed. The planners at K-Sea identified this tug as every bit the equal of the Ludwig, now the Nathan E. Stewart, and she certainly would fit the same new barges. Although nobody could have imagined it when the Ludwig E. was laid down, this unexpected sister would become K-Sea's Ross Sea.

In the nomenclature of designer

Frank Basile, the two vessels are examples of the Emtech 100-ft by 32- ft by 13.9-ft twin screw tug. Basile described this history of the design: "In 1981 I had a phone call from

Captain Robert Dann to see if I could develop a 100-ft tug that would be sea kindly, have great towing capabil- ities, and maximum fuel capacity. "I took the double chine design of the MV Captain Dann, which I had designed and built for him and his brother in 1973, and developed a sin- gle chine hull that proved to meet all his criteria. The tug Gulf Coast was delivered in 1982, it is still doing a good job for Dann Marine Towing. "During the doldrums of the 1980s and early 90s, I did not have the opportunity to contract the use of this design until Halter Marine incor- porated this hull design into the M/V

Snohomish, which was built for

Chevron. The tug has since been sold www.marinelink.com MN 25

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J o n R i e I n t e r T e c h L L C w w w . m a r i n e w i n c h . c o m

Marine Deck Equipment “High Tech……..……Doesn't need to be High price”

M a n a h a w k i n, N J 6 0 9 – 9 7 8 – 3 5 2 3

In the upper wheelhouse, skipper Dan Regan steers the Ross Sea and its barge toward an Arthur Kill terminal, while tug Houma moves into position to assist.