Page 31: of Marine News Magazine (July 2025)

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Boatbuilding

Backlog Builds hipbuilding in the United States has seen a stevedoring), is building the third in a series of 6,000-horse- heightened pro? le with increased attention power, Tier 4 Z- drive boats for sister company Crescent from Congress and the Trump 2.0 Administra- Towing. Designed by Crowley Engineering, the vessel that tion. The ongoing dialogue regarding reinvigo- will be used for ship assist on the Lower Mississippi.

S rating the U.S. deep sea ? eet has brought main- Another south Louisiana yard, Intracoastal Iron Works, stream attention to vessel construction, which has been is building a series of boats for Nashville, Tennessee-based nearly absent in recent years. In contrast, the marketplace Hines Furlong, active on both the Mississippi River and for domestic vessel construction, for vessels serving rivers its tributaries. The ? rst vessel, M/V DONNY MUDGETT and harbors, is alive and well. Recent newbuilds for line- (powered with a triple screw con? guration of Mitsubishi haul trades, and also Z-drive vessels for ship assist work, Tier 3 S6R2 engines, providing 2,400 horsepower overall) show the resilience of this sector. was delivered in late May. The overall construction pro-

April 2025 saw the christening of the towboat DAVID gram, which will include newbuilds from Eymard Marine th

NORTH, the 10 in a series being built for barging stal- Construction & Repair (in Harvey, La) will see delivery of wart Ingram Marine, from Main Iron Works (Houma, four more triple-screw vessels and six twin-screw vessels.

Louisiana). The boat, working in the Lower Mississippi, Bay Houston Towing has also recently christened two is powered by twin Cat C32 Tier 3 engines, providing a Robert Allan designed Z Tech boats, GEORGE M (6,700 total of 1,600 horsepower. The ? rst tug in the series had hp, built 2021 at Gulf Island Fabrication) and MAY LOU- been delivered four years earlier. Sister vessels are all en- ISE (7,000 hp, built 2024 at Master Boat Builders). Both are gaged in Ingram’s Mississippi River and Houston, Texas ? tted with twin Caterpillar 3516 (Tier 4) propulsion, with trades. Around the same time, at its facility in Paducah, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) installed. The company

Kentucky, Ingram was christening another tug, the M/V has two additional ship escort tugs (with a Robert Allan

LEN O’CONNOR (the ninth newbuild in the Main Iron 3200-W design, 8800 horsepower) on order, from the Ster-

Works series) and the re-christening M/V JERRY W ling Shipyard (Port Neches, Texas) for delivery later in 2025.

LONG (7,200 horsepower, built in the late 1960s for Mid- In Port Arthur, Moran Towing has added newbuild- land Enterprises, which Ingram had acquired in the early MARY JANE MORAN, also with a Crowley design, to 2000’s). Main Iron Works had recently completed a series its ? eet of escort vessels. Built at Master Boat Builders in of 6,000 horsepower tractor tugs for Bisso Towing, active Alabama, the boat features two Caterpillar 3512E engines in escort assist work on the Lower Mississippi. (5,100 horsepower combined) tied to US 205 Z-drives

Later in the Spring of 2025, tug and barge owner Mari- from Kongsberg. time Partners (which, in turn, provides lease or bareboat Building of boats has evolved greatly in recent years; charters to vessel operators) took delivery of the tug JOAN Moran explained to Marine News that: “One example is

PLUCK, from FMT Shipyard (Harvey, Louisiana). The our program to deploy Internet of Things (IoT) technol- twin Mitsubishi S6R2 engines (Tier 3), providing 1,600 ogy to increase the ef? ciency of our day-to-day tugboat hp, sourced through distributor Laborde Products, are operations.” IoT uses include smart sensors and real-time also deployed on other vessels in Maritime Partners’ cur- connections to online platforms that enable shoreside rent newbuild program, including PARKER BROOKS monitoring and improved optimization of tug operations. (delivered in February, providing ship assist in waters Shaver Transportation, operating primarily in the Paci? c around Houston), and the soon-to-be-completed ISABEL Northwest, launched its newest tug, HEATHER S, a Rob-

PLUCK (working around Mobile, Ala). ert Allan Rapport 2500 design, at Gunderson Marine &

In early June, another Louisiana based owner, LeBeouf Iron, in Portland, Oregon with Diversi? ed Marine, also in

Brothers, christened MARK DELESDERNIER JR., a Portland, completing the follow-up work. The main en- 3,600-horsepower boat built at the Steiner yard in Bayou La gines on the boat, to be used mainly for ship assist work

Batre, Ala. Nearby yard Blakely BoatWorks (in Mobile, Ala), around Portland and on the Columbia River, are Tier 4 part of the Cooper Group (which got a start in logistics and Caterpillar 3516E, with 7,000 total horsepower. www.marinelink.com MN 31|