Page 29: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2, 2010)

see what that was all about,” said Ted Tre- gurtha, president of Moran Towing. They were interesting and worked out well for us.

But I think the real impetus to go to tractor boats was the opportunity to bid for the

Navy ship-assist contract for Norfolk Navy

Base. Starting in 1998 we built six tractor tugs and converted two others for them for use in Norfolk, and learned a lot through the process. And as we started looking at our fleet-replacements at that time, it seemed logical that our harbor tugs would be Z-dri- ves going forward."

From the 4,000 hp tugs for the Navy, "we went to 5,100 hp, the Diane Moran being the first, a better tug for our own purposes.

We've built nine of those, some with EMD engines, some with MTU engines, we've done them with Schottel, with Rolls-Royce, lots of different combinations."

The Washburn & Doughty 92-ft tug is the basis of most of Moran's recent Z-drives, though two designed for operation in

Cameron, La. and the one in Savannah for

Elba Island have been stretched to 98 ft and 6,600 hp. A pair of 86-ft, 5,100 hp Z-drive tugs were also built recently for Moran, by

C&G Boatworks from a design by Jensen

Maritime Consultants.

With supertugs and fifi-1 fire fighting sys- tems, demanding cargoes could be handled with greater precision. "We got very in- volved in the LNG business starting around 2000-2001, the impetus for most of the 6,000 hp and all the firefighting tugs we built," said Tregurtha. "Our LNG Boats are now employed at five different LNG termi- nals, four in the U.S. and one in Mexico for

Energia Costa Azul. These are probably the furthest out we've gone on Z-drive tugs so

Laura K. Moran, the second 5,100 hp 92-ft Z-drive to join the New York shipdock- ing fleet (following Gramma Lee T. Moran), on her way to work on February 19.

Moran's Z-drive fleet nationwide well exceeds two dozen, designed by a who's who of marine architects. (Photo by Don Sutherland)