With delays in getting parts for the assembly there was a hold up in the delivery of the first of Penn Maritime’s new tugs from Thoma-Sea Boatbuilders. Now the first of five, M/V Skipjack, is nearing completion and will deliver in May. In a near assembly-line production process the second vessel, M/V Coho, will launch sometime in May and deliver in August. The other tugs are already taking shape and will follow on a regular schedule.
Following its delivery the Skipjack will travel to New Orleans to meet up with a 90,000-barrel barge that will come down from its builders at Corn Island Shipyard on the Ohio River in Indiana. Cummins QSK60 engines turning 104 by 112-inch skewed props in Nautican Nozzles with shutter rudders power the 4000 hp Penn tugs. The coupling system is a JAK-400.