Keeping to the Schedule in the Pacific Northwest
When a tightly scheduled repower for the Kodiak-based trawler Sea Mac in early December took a very bad turn, Mike Fourtner used his 25 years of fishing experience and leadership to pull together a team at Cummins Northwest to solve the problem. For the past year, Mike Fortner has been Marine Regional Sales rep for Cummins Northwest. “The new engine had crossed oceans from the factory by ship to Columbus, South Carolina. It was hauled thousands of miles across North America by truck…
The Specialists: A Quartet of S. Louisiana Yards Builds Most U.S. Crew/Supply Boats
The area directly south of Lafayette, La., is authentic bayou country, known for Cajun culture, excellent food, unique music and, for boat lovers, the crew/supply boat capital of the world. Four boat yards in this area build these multi-engine, all- aluminum, speedy vessels, almost exclusively. Each yard turns out up to six crew/supply boats a year. In fact, three of the shipyards are located within just a few miles from each other in the tiny hamlet of Loreauville, La., a town that seems to be made up mostly of aluminum welders. That, of course, is an exaggeration, but not by much. Not every vessel delivered from these shipyards goes to work supporting the search for oil and gas…
One Out ... Two In
When Dunlap Towing of LaConner, Wash., bought the James T. Quig a couple of years ago, they renamed her the Rosario. Now the good tug is getting a lot more than a name change. The boat, built in the late 1970s or early '80's, originally had a single engine installed but she had been designed with enough beam for a twin engine installation. She has been operated with a single 900 hp main but now she will get two Cummins KTA38 main engines to be operated at 800 hp each to nearly double the boat's output to 1,600 hp. The beamy 64 x 21-ft. boat can easily handle the two engines. With the beam carried well aft, Dunlap's operations manager…
