Great Lakes Group News

The Great Lakes Towing Company on Friday christened two new tugs in Chicago.The vessels, Illinois and Indiana, are part of a series of 10 new Damen 1907 ICE tugs built in Cleveland by Great Lakes Shipyard, a sister company to the Towing Company—both part of The Great Lakes Group.The 64’x24’x11’ tugs are each powered by two 1,000-horsepower MTU 8V4000 Tier III diesel engines, and generate over 30-tons of bollard pull. Their propulsion systems include the Canal-Marine-designed Logan FlexaDrive Hybrid power system…

“…We have built our reputation job by job, boat by boat, and tow by tow, and we intend to continue to do so.”The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT) and the Great Lakes Shipyard are core businesses within The Great Lakes Group of Companies, based in Cleveland, on the Old River, a shipping channel that runs west from where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie. Company towing operations extend from Buffalo, N.Y. in the east to Duluth, Minn. in the west. Great Lakes Towing owns and operates the largest U.S.-flagged tugboat fleet on the Great Lakes, serving more than 35 ports in all eight U.S.

As the novel coronavirus and its impacts continue to spread across America, U.S. shipbuilders, by and large, continue to build. While most yards have been deemed essential to marine transportation and/or national security and have been able to maintain operations, the situation at and around every shipyard is different, and there are several builders across the country that have had to temporarily suspend activity. In either scenario, it’s far from business as usual for America’s…

Along the 1,600-mile, ice gray arch of the St Lawrence Seaway, the 2020 Great Lakes commercial shipping season will lurch back to life on March 25 when the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. reopen.The ceremonial opening signals a passage with passable ice and the 114th Great Lakes season for its fleet of 45 venerable lakers. Most of these huge self-loading freight haulers are at least 50 years old, rust free, and fit; American steel sailing on a freshwater sea.To handle Great Lakes cargo…

Embracing and spanning the full breadth of Great Lakes geography and business mix, GLG’s Joe Starck has his multi-missioned firm looking to the future – in more ways than one.The Great Lakes Group (GLG) takes its beginnings from its 1899 incorporation by industrial icon John D. Rockefeller, who formed the Great Lakes Towing to satisfy the demands of a Midwest industrial revolution that brought bigger ships to the region. Existing vessels, unable to keep up with demand, were supplemented and replaced by a fleet of as many as 100 tugboats; the first steel tugs in the region. GLG still has a tug that was part of that original operation.

The Great Lakes Group announced recent new hires to the company’s management team: Thomas Rigolo – Shipyard General Manager; Kirsten Buccigrossi – Director, Marketing & Communications; and Emery Eiber – Quality, Health, Safety, Security, and Environment (QHSSE) Manager.Tom Rigolo is a senior shipbuilding executive with more than 25 years of experience gained from hands-on engineering and high-level leadership roles at several U.S. shipyards. Rigolo is a licensed Professional Engineer…

Facing continued growth driven by client demand, the Great Lakes Towing Company and Great Lakes Shipyard have together added 20 new employees in Q1 2016 and are looking to hire an additional 50+ employees before the end of Q4 2016. “We’re looking out for the future,” said the company’s president, Joe Starck. “We’re strategically focusing our efforts on finding, developing and training a team of professionals for a growing workforce to successfully accomplish the contracts we have now, and the potential contracts we are working on.

Financing the Municipal, Tax-Exempt Workboat Sector. Poring over any of the many marine publications that seemingly arrive daily in your mailbox or inbox, you can get an idea of the depth and breadth of the current state of U.S. commercial marine vessel shipbuilding. Given the tumult in the oil market and the number of cancellations of vessels previously on order, it can safely be said that things certainly have looked better. Beyond this, the uncertainties of a domestic maritime industry that is so inextricably entwined with oil and gas makes predictions about what comes next…

Great Lakes Group says it has reached the final stages of the routine maintenance and drydock contract on the USCG Cutter BISCAYNE BAY, the second of the USCG’s six Great Lakes-stationed 140-foot Bay-class ice-breaking tugs to be drydocked in the Group's shipyard. The mainenance project included: Hull Plating and Ultrasonic Testing Appendages and Leak Test Shaft Seal Assembly and Overhaul Rudder Assembly, Remove, Inspect and Reinstall Anchor Windlass, Level 2 Inspect and Repair Vertical Capstan, Level 2 Inspect and Repair Propulsion Shafting, Remove, Inspect, and Reinstall  Various Cleaning, Inspections, and Repairs

The Great Lakes Towing Company says it has been extremely busy providing icebreaking assistance, and Great Lakes Shipyard has started repairs and maintenance on Interlake Steamship vessels, with more vessels contracted to follow. Recently, the 140-foot USCG Bay-class Icebreaking Tug Katmai Bay (WTGB 101) was dead in the icy waters and required towing assistance to its homeport dock, and the towing company's tug Missouri was dispatched to break ice and assist it back to its dock. The Missouri is also homeported in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan to assist vessels through the U.S.

Designed by Jensen Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and built by the Great Lakes Shipyard of Cleveland, Ohio a 74-foot workboat is quickly making a name for itself; in and out of the water. The “HandySize” Class Tug was designed to fill the niche between the 2,400 to 3,200 HP market for harbor workboats, fireboats, and construction operations and coastal towing, too. The Tug model 2800 is powered by two Cummins QSK38,1400HP diesel engines rated at 1800 rpm, providing a total of 2,800 HP – or in order words, just right for those niche tasks assigned to a Great Lakes workboat.

Puerto Rico Towing & Barge Co. is expanding the size of its tugboat fleet with the addition of the newly constructed Handy-Three which arrived in San Juan Thursday morning. Puerto Rico Towing & Barge Co., a subsidiary of The Great Lakes Group, is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has been providing vessel assistance and towing services to commercial vessels and barges in San Juan Harbor, other Inland Ports, and ports throughout the Caribbean for over 15 years. Recently constructed at Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio, the Handy-Three is now the fifth tug in the Company’s fleet.

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Representative of Northern Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District, was the Sponsor and Principal Speaker for the naming ceremony for the tugboat HANDY-THREE at Great Lakes Shipyard. “She is here today because of her sponsorship and commitment to small shipyards,” remarked Ron Rasmus, President, The Great Lakes Group. Kaptur has championed the passage and funding of the Assistance to Small Shipyards Grant Program which makes grants for capital and related improvements for qualified small shipyard facilities to foster efficiency…

Joseph Starck Jr. will take over as President of Great Lakes Towing Company. Starck joined the towing company in 1991 and was most recently its Vice President – Engineering. Since April 2009, he has also been President of the company’s shipyard division, which operates under the name Great Lakes Shipyard. Starck has been successfully leading all new construction and repair contracts for the company's Shipyard business, and will now be responsible for all of the towing company’s tugboat and shipyard activities on the Great Lakes. Starck is a graduate of the State University of New York Maritime College, and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. George Sogor was named Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer.

Tugz International LLC, an affiliate of The Great Lakes Group, , entered into a Purchase Agreement for a new HandySize 2,800 hp tug with Red Cape Marine Corporation, a Puerto Rico based company. The tug is a new class of tugboats being constructed in The Great Lakes Towing Company’s new Great Lakes Shipyard facility in Cleveland, Ohio. The tug departed the yard on October 23, 2010 bound for St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The tug will be used in the Caribbean in the intra-island movement of a 30,000 bbl oil barge. The tug purchase price is confidential. A new more powerful HandySize 3,200 hp tug is now under construction at the Great Lakes Shipyard facility, Cleveland, Ohio, for delivery in April, 2011.

When the wicked winter weather begins to blow off Lake Erie, a shipbuilder and a crane company in Cleveland, Ohio, and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) will be glad they cooperatively commissioned and built a barge-mounted pedestal crane for the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom Operations in Buffalo, N.Y., to help reduce potential damage to hydroelectric power plants caused by Lake Erie’s inevitable ice. The NYPA asked Great Lakes Shipyard, a member of The Great Lakes Group in Cleveland, to fabricate and deliver a new 80-foot by 34-foot pedestal crane barge for the ice boom operation.

The New York Power Authority’s newly constructed pedestal crane barge will be christened at Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio. The christening ceremony will take place on Thursday, September 23, 2010, beginning at 11 a.m. The barge will be utilized for deployment and retrieval of an ice boom placed across the Niagara River at Buffalo New York to prevent ice from blocking the hydro-electric water intakes of the New York Power Authority. Bristol Harbor Group Inc., Bristol, Rhode Island, designed the barge for New York Power Authority and also acted as its representatives during construction. Ronald C. Rasmus, President and CEO of The Great Lakes Group, will be the ceremony’s principal speaker.

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. will showcase a wide range of new and popular welding products, technologies and safety accessories at the FABTECH 2010 show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, November 2 – 4. Miller’s booth this year (#6811 in Hall C) will provide attendees with product selection clarity by featuring market specific solutions designed to address the specific needs and challenges of the manufacturing, fabrication, shipbuilding, construction and commercial welding markets. 15.

Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of The Great Lakes Group, has completed all work required under contract with Miller Boat Line, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to fabricate and install a new 40-ft mid-body extension in the passenger/vehicle ferry Put-in-Bay. The contract was awarded on August 17, 2009, and all work was completed at Great Lakes Shipyard facilities on the South Bank of the Old River Channel, on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River. What started out as a straight forward mid-body extension project grew into a complete rebuild, including replacement of the main engines with new CAT C18 diesels.

HydraTech Engineered Products of Cincinnati, Ohio has selected the Great Lakes Group and Puerto Rico Towing as exclusive distributors of Marine HydraWrap. The Great Lakes Group, located in Cleveland, Ohio, operates a full service shipyard and specializes in all types of marine repair services. Puerto Rico Towing and Barge Company located in San Juan, Puerto Rico provides towing services and vessel assistance to commercial vessels and barges throughout the Caribbean. The Marine HydraWrap is an ABS design approved carbon fiber composite repair system for pipelines, fittings and bulkheads.  www.hydratechllc.com

Great Lakes Shipyard, a division of The Great Lakes Group, has been awarded a contract by Miller Boat Line, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to fabricate and install a new 40-ft mid-body extension in the passenger/vehicle ferry Put-in-Bay. The contract was awarded on August 17, 2009, and all work is underway at Great Lakes Shipyard's state-of-the-art facilities on the South Bank of the Old River Channel, on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River. The project is slated for completion by year end. Miller Boat Line operates a fleet of four all-steel passenger/vehicle ferries, each approximately 96-ft in length, which run on Lake Erie from Catawba to the islands of Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island) and Middle Bass Island, Ohio.

After one of the five coldest Decembers in recorded history, The Great Lakes Towing Company is finishing up one of its busiest seasons in recent history of icebreaking on the Great Lakes. While the U.S. Coast Guard's role in assisting ships through the ice of the Great Lakes is relatively well-known, few people outside the marine industry realize that U.S. Coast Guard assistance is provided mainly in the federally-maintained navigation channels, and that commercial tugboats with icebreaking capability, and their dedicated crews, assist as many, if not more, ships in harbors throughout the lakes each winter season. During the 2000-2001 winter to date, the tugboats of The Great Lakes Towing Company, an affiliate of The Great Lakes Group, have performed 290 vessels icebreaking assists.

TUGZ International, LLC, an owner-charterer of the Z Class, 4,000 hp multipurpose U.S. flag reverse tractor tugs designed by Jensen Maritime Consultants, Seattle, is introducing a new Jensen designed tug to fill the niche between the 2,000 - 3,000 hp tug market for harbor work, fireboats, and construction operations as well as for coastal towing. The newly designed Handysize Class describes the new tug design as just the right size, just the right power, environmentally sound, fuel efficient and versatile enough to accomplish most tug jobs at the lowest operating cost. This series of tugs will be built at TUGZ’s affiliate Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio. The shipyard recently opened new state-of-the-art facilities for tug and barge construction.