Ted Verret reports that his family’s Plaquamine Louisiana shipyard will be sea trialing the new Blessey Marine push boat M/V Capt. Lance Dragon next week with a scheduled February 1 delivery. The 76 x 30 x 10-ft. towboat will be powered by a pair of Cummins KTA38 M0 engines rated for 850 hp each at 1800 RPM for a total of 170 rpm. Marine gears are a pair of Reintjes WAF562 with 6:1 ratios. The busy yard already has the keel laid and bulwarks formed for a 116x32-foot towboat for the same customer. One of the assets of the Verret yard is its full service machine shop where the lathes are busy working on shafts for the yard’s own boats and for other customers that send shafts up to 32 feet by 12 inches for repair.