Page 55: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1988)

The M/S San Francisco's overall performance improved when it was repowered with two

Detroit Diesel 16V-149TIB marine diesels.

Repowering Of San Francisco Ferries

With Detroit Diesel Engines

Cuts Fuel Costs, Adds Performance —Brochures Offered—

The repowering of three of San

Francisco's commuter ferries are saving their owner, Golden Gate

Bridge, Highway and Transporta- tion District, more than a quarter of a million dollars a year in fuel costs, according to their manager. The 725-passenger ferries each feature a new pair of fuel-efficient Detroit

Diesel 16V-149TIB diesel engines.

The MS San Francisco, the first of the three ferries to be repowered, has been in service for two years.

Two other ferries, the MS Marin and MS Sonoma joined her in ser- vice one year ago. Ferry manager

Eric Robinson has found "dra- matically improved performance" from the repowered boats, leading to a savings in commute time as well as impressive dollar savings."

These savings are being achieved despite a reduction of propulsion power from an original 7,500 shaft horsepower to 3,100 shp with the new Detroit Diesel engines. The new engines are both quiet and reliable.

The economies gained from the repowering program, which was per- formed at Southwest Marine of San

Diego, Calif., will show up in ex- panded service of the ferries, which were built to relieve commuter con- gestion on the Golden Gate Bridge. "This is a great help," reporeted

Mr. Robinson in noting a 60 per- cent reduction in fuel consumption. "When the ferries were originally designed in the 1970s, fuel prices hadn't taken off. We have needed some more efficient power for a long time. Now we've got it."

The three ferries provide luxury passenger-only commuter service between the Ferry Building termi- nal close to downtown San Francis- co and the port of Larkspur serving the residential communities of Mar- in County.

Fuel savings have already met the goals set for the repowering, and overall boat performance has ex- ceeded management's expectations.

Hourly full power total fuel con- sumption has averaged 170 gallons and one genset. Cruising speed of 20.5 knots has exceeded the boat's design sped of 20.2 knots, surprising in view of the great reduction in shaft horsepower.

A critical demand has been that ferry service be increased to meet anticipated ridership, and that the division's high level of on-time ferry departures and landings be main- tained. The markedly improved performance of the boats at slow and intermediate speeds as well as improved maneuverability in the wind (the result of conversion to propellor propulsion) is alreay pay- ing off in terms of time saving dur- ing docking and departures and has added an important margin of safe- ty to ferry operation. "When you're trying to save min- utes in an operation like ours, dock- ing time is one of the things you have to consider. We've shaved a couple of minutes per run. Current- ly we're making runs in 42 to 43 minutes instead of the scheduled 45 minutes," continued Mr. Robin- son. "The key to it all, of course, is that we didn't sacrifice cruising time to get those big fuel savings."

The main engines were supplied by Sierra Detroit Diesel of Emery- ville, Calif. Williams and Lane of

San Leandro, Calif, supplied two

Detroit Diesel 4-71T 100-kW gen- sets for each boat. They provide all ships' power.

For free brochures describing the full time of diesel engines from De- troit Diesel,

Circle 69 on Reader Service Card

Sur-Loc Promotes Clark

To National Sales Manager

Sur-Loc® Inc. of Fremont, India- na, recently announced the promo- tion of Sharon A. Clark to nation- al sales manager.

Company president William

Swager's business since 1950 has been designing, fabricating and erecting tall antenna support tow- ers, used in all types of communica- tions throughout the world.

For free literature giving more information on the Sur-Loc shackle,

Circle 29 on Reader Service Card

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