Paul Kruse News

Founded in 1958 as an extension of the Stradiotti family businesses, North Arm Transportation has grown to be a significant fuel company on the BC coast. Over the years, the company fleet has expanded and evolved. With tugs in a range of size and power, as well as cargo and fuel barges, the company services the coast out of its headquarters in Vancouver on the North Arm of the Fraser River. They also have facilities on Mitchell Island in the Fraser and at Masset on Haida Gwaii.

British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast, has some attractive and well-proven tugs, but the fleet is aging with many vessels over thirty years old. Four years ago Vancouver’s Island Tug and Barge (www.islandtug.com) launched the new build Island Scout with a pair of Cummins KTA38 main engines. This August, they will return their 1977-built 21 x 7.3-m tug Island Defender to service. The midlife rebuild has taken a year to complete but as Island Tug’s president Bob Shields explained this was much more than a repower…