Page 43: of Marine News Magazine (May 2016)

42 44

INLAND MARINE OPERATIONS sessment. The added congestion of crazy. As Type-A captains though, you screw boats and those of us who can the Tappan Zee Bridge construction strive to be the best at what you do, so run them and actually enjoyed it are site would be a piece too, but as con- your acceptable risk level is high. a dying breed. The younger captains struction progresses and barges are The acceptance of high risk is fad- have begun their careers in a much shifted around you couldn’t plan too ing as our work force ages. Tractors different environment – more horse- far ahead for a certain con? guration with a lot of horsepower are replacing power, increasing acceptance of assist at the bridge. Would setting onto the conventional twin screw boats. Single boats, more regulation and more law- crane barge in the span and peeling the tug off the side of the tow be part of your assessment?

It will now. But I doubt it would have that day. The boat left Albany with the tow astern and a whole dif- ferent set of risk factors would have been looked at.

Looking ahead, and behind

I have developed a checklist for towing dredges and other large equip- ment. When creating the checklist, I looked at every aspect of the towed object and the risks associated with the tow and I didn’t include the sce- nario that unfolded on March 12, 2016 into it. It never crossed my mind and I come from the towing in- dustry. I started on a small single-crew tug moving things that any sane per- son in 2016 would consider too big for a small tug. But in the 1980’s, that was normal and over the last 30 years,

I can never remember thinking about or talking with a crew about the situ- ation that unfolded for the Specialist.

Years ago, I took a very large barge up the Hudson with another small boat. We looked at the risks – tight areas, recreational and commercial traf? c, tight turns, head current and limited visibility for each boat. Then we revised our trip as we went north.

Bridges were part of it, but bridge tran- sits are part of a captain’s life underway and surely were part of the Specialist’s crews’ assessment. This is what we do.

It is an industry that is not for the faint of heart and the non-oil mov- ing towing vessels routinely do things that their oil moving brothers think is 43 www.marinelink.com MN

MN May16 Layout 34-51.indd 43 4/20/2016 11:53:19 AM