Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1969)

Unique Pilothouse Lift Installed On Chotin Towboat Built By Port Allen Marine Latest addition to the Chotin fleet, the MV Sugarland, is shown here entering a bend on the Lower Mississippi. The MV Sugarland, a 138-foot by 42-foot by 11-foot 6-inch triple-screw towboat is the 17th boat built by Port Allen Marine Service since they started building boats three years ago. The name Sugarland was taken from one of the first vessels on which Capt. Joseph Chotin, founder of Chotin Transportation, Inc.. was pilot. The new 3,375-hp vessel was added to the Chotin Transportation. Inc. fleet to be used primarily in the movement of various chemicals between Houston and Chicago. Design of the new Sugarland was a joint venture of Port Allen and Chotin and contains a pilothouse lifting mechanism that is a barge industry innovation. This feature is a double-lift retractible pilothouse to facilitate opera-tions on the Illinois River and in the immedi-ate Chicago area where there are numerous low bridges. The pilothouse lifting mechanism is of a new design by Port Allen based on an idea by Capt. Scott Chotin. Pilothouse lifts are powered by a jack-screw mechanism manufac-tured by Philadelphia Gear Corporation for pri-mary lift and by a hydraulic unit for secondary lift that enables full extension of the pilothouse to an eye-level height of approximately 28 feet above the water line. The radar mast is also hvdraulically operated and extends as the pilot-house is extended and automatically lowers as the pilothouse is lowered. The monitoring systems on the pilothouse console indicate to the pilot pertinent informa-tion concerning the operating condition of the main and auxiliary engines. Another feature of the boat is that the port and starboard flanking rudders operate independent of each other. The three main steering rudders have interconnect-ed linkage, allowing standard parallel opera-tion. Full follow-up and non-follow-up steer-ing plus automatic pilot are among the features of the new vessel. The Sugarland is powered by three 1,125-hp turbo-charged Model 399 Caterpillar engines. Two D333 Caterpillar generating sets supply the.electrical power for the vessel, each having 24-volt automatic starting and shut-down fea-tures. In event of a mechanical failure the op-erating set would automatically shut down and the other would start up. The vessel is equip-ped with horizontal offset 5.3 to 1 ratio Phila-delphia Gear Corporation reduction gears, and Avondale 86-inch stainless-steel propellers. There are accommodations for a crew of 10 and guest quarters for two persons, six state-rooms in all. each with private bath. All quar-ters and pilothouse are air conditioned through-out. Port Allen in just live short years has grown from a small barge cleaning and gas-freeing facility with 10 employees to a full fledged shipyard with 160 employees. Some of the ac-complishments of the yard are the construction of 17 towboats. construction of deck barges and dredge hulls, plus the fabrication of bridge caissons and other specially designed steel fa-bricated items. Yard activities include: sand-blasting. painting and repairs to barges and boats; a gas-freeing facility; plus a gas-free-ing facility in the Baton Rouge harbor. fi 1 11 IPlffj lf| MARINE SERVICES NAVAL ARCHITECTS MARINE ENGINEERS A Division of Genge Industries, Inc. Honolulu: 1375 Dillingham Son Diego: 3467 Kurtz Los Angeles: 4419 Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Col. (213) 901-3111 William L Batiks, Jr. Cargo Gear Consultants 226 Warner Avenue (516) MAyfair 1-7264 Roslyn Heights, N.Y. J. L. BLUDWORTH NAVAL ARCHITECT! TUGS BARGES 4030 Wyne St. Houston, Tex. 77017 BOUCHER SHIP MODELS Since 1905 Ship Models?Show Case Plating, Test and Industrial Models Repairs and Parts BOUCHER-LEWIS PRECISION MODaS, Inc. 3* East 12th Street, New York 3, N.Y., GR 3-4073 Let our proven designing take the improbabilities out of your Oceanographical Diversification Projects. Write to? DRAWER Q, Lake Arthur, La. 70549 COAST ENGINEERING CO. & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING ENGINEERS NAVAL ARCHITECTS & MARINE ENGINEERS MARINE SURVEYORS 711 West 21st Street 1936 Reynolds Avenue Norfolk, Virginia 23517 Charleston, S. Carolina 29405 Telephone 625-2744 Telephone 747-5066 Entertainment & Sound Reenforcement Systems Radio & TV Entertainment Antenno Systems Closed Circuit TV & Dial Telephone Systems Commercial Radio-Sound Corp. ENGINEERS AND MANUFACTURERS SOUND and COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS 652 First Aye., New York, N.Y. 10016 Tel: (212 ) 679-0400 CRANDALL DRY DOCK ENGINEERS, INC. Designers of Marine Structures and Dry Dock Facilities Planning ? Field Engineering ? Consulting ? Special Materials 238E Main St., Cambridge 42, Massachusetts DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC. 330S Tulane Avenue Now Orleans, La. 70119 Naval Architects Marine Engineers Marine Management Transportation Consultants Phone: 022-7410 rG>@§0®G]H PIL/MI1 INCORPORATED E 2 / NAVAL K^L / ARCHITECTS <5 / MARINE / ENGINEERS 114 FIFTH AVENUE / P O. 10* 1010 HEW YORK. NEW YORK 10 011 / SUVEST0N. TE*. 7 7 5 5 0 ^ (212)111-7770 / (711)502-1002 J M. MACK EARLE, P. E. COMPLETE MARINE ARCHITECHNICAL SERVICE 103 Mellor Avenue 301/747-4744 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND 21228 CHRISTOPHER J. FOSTER Consulting Engineers Nova/ Architects ? Marino Engineers SURVEYS, CONSULTATIONS, DESIGNS & SUPERVISION 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y. 10004 - Dlgby 4-0125 14 Vanderventer Ave., Port Washington, N.Y. 11050 - PO 7-7830 Cable Address "Cefosta" FLOATING DRY DOCKS MARINE STRUCTURES GRAVING DOCKS SHIPYARD EXPANSIONS PORT FACILITIES OFFSHORE PLATFORMS OFFSHORE MOORINGS FRIEDE AND GOLDMAN, INC. Naval Architects & Marine Engineers SUITE 1414, 225 BARONNE STREET NEW ORLEANS, LA. 70112 523-4621 GIBBS & COX, INC. NAVAL ARCHITECTS AND MARINE ENGINEERS One Broadway, New York, N. Y. 10004 21 West Street, New York, N. Y. 10006 525 School Street S.W., Washington, D. C. 20024 New York: 212-344-4366 Cable: GIBBARCH Washington: 202-737-3133 TWX: 212-571-1623 MORRIS GURALNICK ASSOCIATES, INC. Naval Architects and Engineers San Francisco, California ?JcHEflRY-co-inc-nnvfu ARCHITECTS ? MFLRTNF ENGIRUERS ? MARINE SURVEYORS 90 West St., New York, N.Y. 10006 ? WH 3-2170 401 North Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 1910S ? WA 5-17J5 430 South Main St., Cohasset, Mass. 02025 ? EV 3-9200 L K HOMYER MARINE ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING Box 408, Corona del Mar, California Dial (714) 673-6491 JAMES S. KROGEN NAVAL ARCHITECT & MARINE ENGINBER Tel. 373-8294 1460 Brickell Ave., Miami, Flo. 33131 Littleton Research and Engineering Corp. Consulting and Contract Research in Applied Mechanics Hull Vibration and Shock Noise Control Structural Analysis Hydrodynamics 95 Russell Street. Littleton, Massachusetts 01460 Telephone 486-3526 area code 617 ROBERT H. MACY Naval Architect & Marine Engineer P.O. Box 7S8 Phono: 742-5447 Pascagoula, Mississippi MARINE APPLICATIONS CO. MARINE ENGINEERS Consultants Designers DID TECHNICAL SERVICES WORKING DRAWINSS DIESEL and PROPULSION CONSULTANTS 14* Second Street P.O. Bex 1*7 Mlneola, L.I., N.Y. 514-747-0407 JOHN J. McMULLEN ASSOCIATES, INC. Naval Architects?Marine Engineers?Consultants NEW YORK HAMBURG SAN FRANCISCO GEORGE E. MEESE NAVAL ARCHITECTS ? MARINE ENGINEERS CONSULTANTS ? SURVEYORS DESIGNS FOR YACHTS AND COMMERCIAL VESSELS WOOD ? ALUMINUM ? STEEL ? PLASTIC TELEPHONE 194 ACTION ROAD COLONIAL 3-4054 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 16 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News