Catherwood Buys Tugboat, Side-swaps Engines

Catherwood Towing's owner, Ernie Catherwood, adds another tugboat to his 14-boat fleet that operates in and around Canada's Fraser River.

The 39-year old boat was at a shipyard undergoing a scheduled Canadian Steamship Inspection. Ernie had marine surveyor Mark McAllister and his port engineer Trevor Sexton check the boat out, and they reported the boat sound with excellent 1/2-inch hull plating. But the old 12V149 Jimmies were tired, although their big Lufkin gears had recently been rebuilt and were in good shape.

Ernie decided that if he could repower the boat with a new set of Cummins KTA38 engines at the right price he could make some money with the tug. Todd Braconnier of TCB Marine Consulting proposed that they use a well-proven process of installing the new engines through the side of the hull rather than the traditional lowering in from above and moving forward into the engine room. Mark McAlister explained that design forethought by the builder in placement of tanks and auxiliary machinery on the tug made this method much simpler.

“We were able to do the engine swap with this method for half the cost of stripping the engine and going in from the hatch in the aft deck,” Catherwood said, “The savings in labour with workers not climbing up and down to the main deck are significant but more importantly the crew at Arrow Marine terminals, where we are doing the job, were able to remove the old and set the new engines in place with a fork lift. With long forks, even the starboard engine, opposite the hull opening, could be set.”

In addition to the main engine repower Catherwood has installed two new 50 kW gen sets, upgrades to the electronics included 40 wheelhouse-alarm sensors for the engine room, complete overhaul of the Burrard towing winch and rebuild of various components and piping. The winch is fitted with an air-controlled brake and carries 2400 feet of 1.25-inch wire.