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Boston Towing News

18 Apr 2011

MTU 4000 Engines Power New LNG Terminal Tugs

Photo courtesy MTU

Boston Harbor has been an important shipping center for more than 300 years, from its influx of European immigrants to the wide variety of cargo it handles today. Since the early 1970s, the area has become a major center for unloading the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers that supply natural gas to much of the Northeast. Getting those tankers safely to their terminals is the job of ship-assist tugboats such as those operated by Boston Towing and Transportation (BT&T). When BT&T commissioned two new tugs for assisting LNG tankers belonging to global giant Suez Energy North America…

02 Dec 2009

New RAmparts 3000 Tug for Boston Towing

Photo courtesy Robert Allan Ltd.

Boston Towing and Transportation Company has taken delivery of the first of a new pair of tugs designed by Robert Allan Ltd., Naval Architects of Vancouver, B.C., for offshore LNG Terminal support for the Neptune LNG LLC, Deep Water Port, offshore Massachusetts Bay. The M.V. Justice is the smaller of the two tugs. It is a modified RAmparts 3000 Class tug which will primarily be engaged in harbour duties, but will serve as the back-up for the larger tug (the ASD 39/70 Class Independence) during the latter's service periods.

08 Sep 2008

Shipyard files Chapter 11, but Derecktor Maintains its Course to Grow

Derecktor Shipyards Conn., LLC last month filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The company said the filing was the result of a single contract dispute, and that it is still busy and fully staffed, working on several newbuild projects, including a contract to build a massive 85.6-m motor yacht, a 45-m catamaran and a pair of tugboats for Boston Towing and Transport. In addition, the Derecktor yard in Connecticut has a building slot open starting September 2008, as well as a build slot available for delivery at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012. "The company has been engaged in lengthy negotiations to resolve issues relating to one of its contracts," said Paul Derecktor, president.

25 Jul 2008

Derecktor Shipyards Conn., LLC Announces Chapter 11 Filing

On July 18, 2008, Derecktor Shipyards Conn., LLC announced that the company filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The company said that it intends to maintain all normal business operations throughout the bankruptcy process. Its decision to file bankruptcy was a result of several factors, most notably issues relating to a contractual dispute. “The company has been engaged in lengthy negotiations to resolve issues relating to one of its contracts,” said Paul Derecktor, president of the company. Mr. Derecktor continued, “The action we have taken is a necessary step to preserve the company’s value for its creditors, customers, employees and other stakeholders as we work towards the future success of the company.

05 Mar 2004

Feature: Guiding the Gas

Many workboats in the marine industry are called upon in supply or assist roles. The entire offshore vessel industry is based on a supply function to oil and gas drilling operations or the resupply of production platforms. The tugboat industry is most often characterized as small vessels assisting very large ships in docking, undocking and other harbor movements. The growth of these vessel companies and their operations depends on the economic vitality of the larger industry they serve. Right now the hottest new market being served by tugs is in the assistance of very large Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) tankers to dock and undock. As is the case in other marine support operations, the growth of tugs to assist LNG tankers depends on the basic health of LNG transport.

08 Mar 2001

Reinauer's Operation Systems Ready for 21st Century

The maritime industry operates according to seafaring laws that are hundreds of years old. Until recently, the backroom operations, too, reflected a less-than-modern view of the world. Virtually all systems were manual, resulting in the often onerous and ponderous transfer of information to customers, management and employees. At many companies, including Reinauer Transportation Company and its sister companies, Boston Towing and Transportation, and Reincon, this has begun to change. The 77- year-old family owned and operated tug and barge company is now using web-built accounting and operations systems, which have dramatically transformed business for customers like Mobil, Exxon, Chevron and Shell.

12 Sep 2007

Boston Towing to Get New Support Tugs

Boston Towing and Transportation Company have contracted with Robert Allan Ltd., Naval Architects of Vancouver, B.C., to design a pair of new offshore LNG Terminal Support tugs to provide the services required for The Neptune LNG LLC, Deep Water Port, offshore Massachusetts Bay. The larger of the new vessels, designated as an ASD 39/70 Class tug by Robert Allan Ltd., will be the first of its kind built and operated in North America, although there are numerous other RALdesigned tugs, including many of the similar RAstar Class tugs currently building worldwide for major oil and LNG terminals. will primarily be engaged in harbour duties, but will serve as the back-up vessel for the larger tug during service periods.

07 Jun 2007

Boston Towing and Transportation Company Wins Offshore LNG Project

Vincent D. Tibbetts Jr., president of Boston Towing & Transportation, the Boston division of the Reinauer Companies, announced that Boston Towing and Transportation Company has been awarded a significant 20 year contract by Suez Energy N.A. LLC to support their Neptune Offshore LNG Terminal. This contract includes the construction and operation of two additional vessels, a 128 foot, 5400 hp, controllable pitch Z Drive, FiFi 1 Offshore Support Vessel based in Gloucester, Ma, as well as a smaller 101foot, 5400hp, controllable pitch Z Drive, FiFi 1 tug that will operate in the harbor, as well as acting as backup to the larger offshore vessel. This will increase BTT’s fleet to four tractor tugs in addition to eight other conventional tugs.

18 Sep 2002

Boston Tug Muster 2002

A tugmeet is bound to be a local event, as harbor extravaganzas go. For starters, how far do we expect people to drive boats, just for the chance to strut? Okay, hundreds of miles if they could, but the cost of fuel and time off from business are both to be reckoned with. Even when they do arrive from afar, local conditions define the event. In Boston, for example, a tugboat race would not be advised. It's truly a crowd-pleaser when a field of tugs, a dozen abreast, tears up the waters like a raging winter storm. But it's environmentally unfriendly on Boston's confined waters, and anyway, a race is not such a true measure of a tug. Tugs are built more for power than speed. At the Boston Tug Muster on August 17, it was the push-off, the head-to-head contest, that measured you up.

15 Oct 2002

Washburn & Doughty and BTT Team Up to Build Tugs for LNG Application

Washburn & Doughty Associates, Inc. of East Boothbay, Maine is currently building two 4400 HP Z Drive (ASD) Tugs for Boston Towing & Transportation Company (BTT) of Boston, Massachusetts. The vessels measure 92’ x 32’ x 13’9” and have an estimated bollard pull of 110,000 lbs ahead and 105,000 lbs astern. BTT is a division of Reinauer Transportation Companies of Staten Island, New York. The vessels, which will be named Freedom and Liberty, were design to fulfill BTT’s contract with Tractebel LNG Shipping North America LLC. Tractebel brings LNG ships into Boston Harbor. The tugs will assist the LNG tankers during inbound and outbound transits and will be used to turn the ships 180° in the basin east of the Tobin Bridge and back them under the bridge to their Mystic River berth.

07 Jul 2003

Feature: Boston Tug Muster 2003 Classic Powerhouses and Modern Behemoths

There was a tense moment at the Boston Tug Muster, held this year on the last day of May. At 10 A.M. sharp, the official opening moment of this 19th annual event, there were no tugs at the rallying point, Pier 4, Charlestown. At 10:05, still no tugs. By 10:10, only Innovator, possibly the shortest tug in town, had cruised by. It passed along the pier as if looking for old friends, and finding none, performed its trademark about-face and seemed to be departing. Maybe the gents aboard had got the date wrong? Last year's Muster, after all, was in August. On the pier itself, among Muster officials, a nasty question was starting to form: What if you gave a Muster, and nobody came?

20 Nov 2002

Tugs Being Built for LNG Application

The booming business in the LNG market is reaching all levels of marine business, as attested by Maine's Washburn & Doughty Associates, Inc., which is currently building two 4,400 hp Z-Drive (ASD) Tugs for Boston Towing & Transportation Company (BTT) of Boston. The vessels measure 92 x 32 x 13.75 ft. and have an estimated bollard pull of 110,000 lbs ahead and 105,000 lbs astern. BTT is a division of Reinauer Transportation Companies of Staten Island, New York. The vessels, which will be named Freedom and Liberty, were design to fulfill BTT's contract with Tractebel LNG Shipping North America LLC. Tractebel brings LNG ships into Boston Harbor.

20 Nov 2002

K-Sea's OK Seas

Even on New York harbor, where the tugs range from burly to brutish, K-Sea's biggest are easy to pick out. Standing as tall as a seven-story house, they're the white ones. Their red trim makes them all the more conspicuous, like huge decorated lateens on the horizon as they move monster barges from the Kills. For giants like these, of course, harbor chores like bunkering would be almost recreational, something to keep them exercised between the coastal jaunts for which they're designed - and for which their owners are expanding. K-Sea has a dedicated harbor fleet too. They're as brawny as any but look a little moreso - muscular, almost hulking with those white superstructures stark against the sky. K-Sea also has a pushboat, the curious Odin, odd to the eye but insistently practical.