Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2001)

Crowley Launches Refurbishment Of 25 Seagoing Tugs

Crowley Liner Services has launched company's triple-deck RoRo barges performance and reliability of the tugs, a major refurbishment of 25 seagoing between the U.S. mainland and Puerto each of which is capable of generating a tugs to extend their lives at least another Rico and specialized contract services. powerful 150,000 pounds of bollard pull 15 years. These U.S.-flagged. Invader- Crowley's multi-million-dollar invest- ahead and 7,200 maximum continuous

Class vessels, each of which is crewed ment includes the rebuilding of the tugs' bhp. "The long-term investment made in by six seamen, are widely used through- main engines, effectively returning each the refurbishment of these tugs is of out the Crowley system for a variety of to zero hours. This provides a marked great benefit to our customers because it jobs, including the ocean towing of the improvement in the overall operational helps us to maintain the service reliabil- ity and schedule integrity they have come to expect," said Tom Crowley,

Jr.. chairman, president and CEO of

Crowley Maritime Corp.

To date, five tugs have been refur- bished with five scheduled to undergo the process over the next 12 months.

The work is being done at North Florida

Shipyard in Jacksonville. In addition to the engine refurbishments, a host of other improvements are also being made, including the complete remodel- ing of interior living spaces and newly designed modular control consoles designed by Crowley's electronics spe- cialists. "Our goal is not just to refur- bish the tugs to like-new condition, but to improve their functionality," said

Crowley director of Engineering Mike

Golonka. "We have a valuable resource in the crew members and operations per- sonnel who have worked on these tugs during the past 25 years," he said. " Who better to ask about improving the tug's design than the crew who uses it and the operations crew who keep it going?"

Crewmembers were interviewed and operations personnel were asked for input about the tugs' strengths and weaknesses. In addition to giving every- one an important role in the project, the analysis yielded improvements that could be made during the refurbishment.

Even minor information that was gath- ered made a major difference in the overall functionality of the refurbished tug. For example, by adding a small light over the chart table, the Master would no longer have to turn on the overhead light on the bridge — a prob- lem that previously caused him to lose night visibility. Stairs and ladder strip- ping were replaced with a more effec- tive, non-skid coating to reduce the risk of injury. Also, while in the process of rebuilding the interior, Ethernet connec- tions were installed in anticipation of a future LAN system to support PC-based

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