Page 37: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 1989)

$4.2-Million Contract

Awarded Century Marine

For Tanker Repairs

The Maritime Administration has awarded a $4,173,190 contract to

Century Marine Co., 200 Pier Road,

Orange, Texas, for repairs to the tanker Mount Vernon that will up- grade the vessel to Ready Reserve

Force (RRF) status.

The contract covers upgrading of

Fishermen's Boat Shop Inc. at Ever- ett, Wash.

The 40-ton, blunt-bowed vessel, which has a top speed of about 8.5 knots, was equipped with Cummins 6B Series diesels because these engines have horsepower ratings that fit well with the rpm require- ments of the pump jets and fire pump, reported Paul Zankich, Co- lumbia Sentinel's principal naval architect. "We looked at several manufac- turers to see what they had available in that horsepower range," he said. "We wanted preferably an Ameri- can-made engine with good availa- bility of parts and service. That par- ticular (Cummins 6B Series) engine satisfied all of those conditions."

Among the multipurpose vessel's bridge maintenance duties will be assisting with adjusting anchor ca- bles, flushing bridge drains, main- taining navigation lights and doing other maintenance as needed. The vessel is equipped with a six-ton- capacity, knuckle-boom hydaulic crane, pilothouse controls at sta- tions both fore and aft inside the pilothouse and quick-disconnect connections for portable hydraulic and pneumatic tools.

For more information and free lit- erature on Cummins engines,

Circle 86 on Reader Service Card the vessel to meet regulatory inspec- tions and certification including hull, machinery, electrical, naviga- tion-communication equipment, and general topside repairs.

Cummins-Powered Tender

Serves Washington State's

New Floating Bridge

M^l,

The unusual shape of the bridge tender— with a tall house forward and extremely low work deck aft—was required because of the floating bridge's structural design and height.

When the world's largest vehicu- lar floating bridge was completed recently at Seattle, a newly built,

Cummins-powered vessel—Drift- wood II—was on hand to begin serv- ing as the concrete structure's ten- der.

Performing bridge maintenance, backup firefighting and environ- mental cleanup chores is a 46-foot, specially designed steel vessel pow- ered by a pair of Cummins 6BT5.9-

M marine diesels, each rated at 180 horsepower at 2,500 rpm. Each in- line engine powers a 360-degree- rotatable Schottel SPJ-55 pump-jet thruster mounted below the pilo- thouse.

In addition to the main engines, the Driftwood II is equipped with a

Cummins 6B25.9-M diesel, rated at 115 horsepower at 2,500 rpm, for powering a 750-gallon-per-minute fire pump. The main engines are turbocharged and the fire pump en- gine is naturally aspirated.

The Driftwood II, owned and op- erated by the State of Washington

Department of Transportation, not only is tending the new Interstate 90 floating bridge across Lake Wash- ington but will be assigned to an older floating bridge that will reop- en to traffic in 1992 after receiving major refurbishing. The new bridge will be for westbound traffic and the refurbished structure will be for eastbound traffic.

The two floating bridges are an- chored alongside each other be- tween Seattle and Mercer Island in

Lake Washington.

Washington State's new bridge tender was designed by Columbia

Sentinel Engineers Inc., Seattle- based naval architectural and ma- rine engineering firm, and built by

Circle 245 on Reader Service Card