Page 38: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2024)

An 11,000- hp 'Beast' of a

Towboat

Courtesy ACBL

ACBL MARINER

American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL) last month wel- 56 barges northbound, and later on, ACBL plans to expand comed its new ? agship, the 11,000-hp towboat ACBL Mariner. the northbound tows to 64 barges under the right navigational

Designed by CT Marine and built by C&C Marine and Repair, conditions, Chamness said.

the twin-screw towboat is a beast, measuring 200- x 54-ft. ACBL Mariner marks a pivot from what has been the indus- with an 11-ft. operating draft, powered by a pair of Louisiana try norm over the last decade or so: towboats in the 6,000-hp

CAT-supplied Caterpillar C280-12 main engines that produce range with Z-drives used for mainline operations.

approximately 11,000 hp. The engines are paired with two “When comparing this 11,000 HP class towboat to smaller

Reintjes WAF 6755 reduction gears from Karl Senner, LLC, 6,000 HP class towboats frequently used for mainline operations, while generator power comes from three Caterpillar 275-kW this larger horsepower vessel will increase ef? ciency by 20% or generators. The towboat is out? tted with CT Marine CT28-SL more on both a cost per ton mile and CO2 emission per ton mile nozzles housing 124-inch diameter stainless-steel, ? ve-blade basis due to the increase in tow size and tonnage capacity,” said ? xed pitch propellers and features Twin-DIFF ? anking and Patrick Sutton, ACBL SVP of ? eet development and strategy. steering rudder systems. Like most others in maritime, the barging industry struggles “To have this much horsepower with only two engines and to recruit and retain the workforce it needs. To recruit crews still be able to push the largest tows in the industry, that's a effectively, “you have to have and offer the same level of [on- huge advantage because it brings the operational cost down,” board] crew comforts and modern amenities that you would said Randy Chamness, ACBL’s vice president of vessel opera- have at home,” Chamness said. “This boat does that better tions. “When you look at it at cost per ton mile and cost per than any other that I've seen. So, it's easy to recruit people to operating hour, there's no vessel in the industry that will be work on a boat like this.” able to match what this boat.” With accommodations for a crew of up to 12, the vessel in-

ACBL Mariner will operate on ACBL’s mainline network corporates a ? oating, spring-mounted superstructure for addi- with the capability to push approximately 75,000 tons of tional onboard comfort. Its pilothouse eyeline will be 47 feet cargo. It will push up to 46 loaded barges southbound and above the water.

38 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • December 2024

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