June 15, 1976 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News

Tacoma Boat Launches First Of Two Tug/Supply Vessels For Tidewater Marine

Tacoma Boatbuilding Company of Tacoma, Wash., recently launched its first tug/supply vessel for Tidewater Marine of New Orleans, La. The Sun Tide is the first of two being built under a $12-million contract.

The 218-foot vessel has four engines supplying the oceangoing workboat with 7,800 horsepower.

Her beam measures 43 feet, and she draws 19 feet.

Delivery of the Sun Tide is scheduled for next fall. Her sistership, the Moon Tide, is scheduled to be launched this summer.

The Tacoma Boat-built Sun Tide and Moon Tide will be operated in the Alaskan Gulf. They will be under charter to Sun Oil Co. The owner, Tidewater Marine, has a fleet of more than 400 vessels.

The two Tacoma Boat vessels are among the six biggest and most powerful the firm has. The other four were constructed in Norway and Scotland for service in the turbulent North Sea area.

The deck space aft for carrying drill pipe and other topside cargo measures 32 by 116 feet— more than half their length. Deck cargo capacity is 500 tons. Below deck, the boat will carry up to 550 tons of drilling water and 6,000 cubic feet of bulk cement.

Four General Motors EMD V-16 diesel engines, two per shaft, will propel the vessel at a 16-knot cruising speed. Offshore oil rigs will be towed at half that speed.

The Sun and Moon Tide will be equipped with kort nozzles for added thrust. For increased maneuverability, the boats feature Propulsion System's nickelaluminum- bronze Liaaen, Model EG 95, variable-pitch propellers and Murray & Tregurtha, 500 bhp, fixed-pitch bow thrusters.

Versatility is also designed into the Sun Tide. Two Ingersoll Rand, 300-psi monitors, capable of pumping 1,100 gpm water/ foam allow the Sun and Moon Tide to double as fireboats.

The Tacoma, Wash., main shipyard recently delivered the Mariner III, a 270-foot semisubmersible oil rig, to Santa Fe International.

Across Commencement Bay from the main yard on the Hylebos Waterway is Tacoma Boat's "Old Town" site, where two more 165-foot aluminum hulls are being built.

Vice president of marketing Martin Kane stated that the offshore tug/supply vessels and the offshore oil rig are the first of many such vessels that Tacoma Boat hopes to build for the oil industry. Tacoma Boat recently added a 73-foot crewboat to its offshore product line.

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