Greg Beers News

Born at the University of Michigan in the early 1990s, Bristol Harbor Group (BHG) has grown into a diverse and widely respected naval architecture and marine engineering firm. Cory Wood, Vice President and one of the four co-founders of BHG, discusses the companies past and design drivers to power its future.The University of Michigan runs one of the most prestigious naval architecture and marine engineering programs in the country, but when Cory Wood entered U of M, he did so with the intent of becoming an aerospace engineer.

American Commercial Barge Line’s leadership and early adoption of ZF Marine’s z-drive propulsion technology underscores a growing trend on the inland waterways. American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL) has been around a long time – since 1915, to be exact – and along the way has developed into one of the dominant players in the inland marine transportation industry. With a passion for safety and a green footprint, ACBL has always embraced technology and innovation. That point was obvious when it made the decision to outfit at least 15 of its towboats with ZF Marine’s Z-drive systems. The Z-Drive installations are but a small part of a $500 million fleet and equipment investment that ACBL has undertaken over the course of the last five years.

Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. (BHGI) is a full service naval architecture and marine engineering firm located on the harbor in Bristol, Rhode Island. BHGI has produced more than 50 unique designs to which more than 100 vessels have been built. Specializing in commercial vessel design and consulting, the firm’s experience spans tugs, barges, ATB’s, passenger vessels, dredges and yachts. The BHGI professional team hails from some of the best naval architecture schools in the country. BHGI has been working on a number of projects through its second contract with the U.S.

The Shearer Group, Inc. (TSGI) designs inland towboats and barges, with a focus on the inland sector. Inland barges built to TSGI designs number in the thousands, along with a myriad of towboat, dry dock and other specialty designs. TSGI provides naval architecture, marine engineering, marine surveying and technical support to clients worldwide. Commercial vessel designs include towboats, inland barges (liquid cargo, dry cargo, crane) and miscellaneous vessels such as dry docks and casinos. The firm has 10 employees.

Propulsion evolves, improves and powers forward in the inland markets. And, Z-Drive propulsion is the future. In a white paper released late in 2014 by The Shearer Group, Ed Shearer and Greg Beers outlined The Next Generation of inland vessels, what will drive design changes and the advantages of azimuthing stern drives – or ‘Z-Drives,’ for short. The authors point out that, until recently, towboats on all the inland waterways and Gulf Coast have traditionally been built using main engines connected to reduction gearboxes connected to long drive shafts passing through the towboat hull. In a nutshell, according The Shearer Group, the advantages of using z-Drives on inland towboats include decreased installation time…

The last piece of the LNG infrastructure puzzle, in the form of North America’s first LNG bunker barge, falls into place at Conrad’s Orange, Texas Shipyard. With continued debate over new emissions standards and compliance dates hanging over the heads of operators in the Emission Compliance Zones like the Sword of Damocles, WesPac Midstream LLC, a provider of liquefied natural gas solutions, and its affiliate Clean Marine Energy, a facilitator of solutions for emission compliance…

The Shearer Group and Conrad Shipyard collaborate on an ABS approved LNG Towboat Design. What happens next could change inland shipping forever. The December announcement that Conrad Shipyard, L.L.C. and The Shearer Group, Inc. (TSGI) had worked together to develop the design of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) powered 4,200 horsepower towboat utilizing a proven TSGI design was, perhaps, exciting enough on its own merits. That the team had also been awarded an “Approval in Principle” (AIP) by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for the design was especially significant for the nation’s inland waterfront. Packing clean LNG power into an inland towboat was no easy task. And yet, the potential for the concept to blossom in this largely fixed, point-to-point market is very real.

Conrad Shipyard and The Shearer Group, Inc. (TSGI) said that its design of a 4,200 horsepower LNG-powered towboat received “Approval in Principle” (AIP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). The boat is based on TSGI’s azimuth drive (Z-drive) towboat design that debuted in 2008 as the FRANK T. STEGBAUER. To date, eight of these towboats have been built for Southern Towing Company, which is a pioneer in the use of z-drives for brown water operations. The boats have shown significant fuel savings relative to conventional towboats.

Conrad Shipyard, L.L.C. engaged Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. (BHGI) to develop a 3,000 cubic meter Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transport barge utilizing a Bristol Harbor Group proven hull design built by Conrad. Bristol Harbor Group has been awarded an Approval in Principle (AIP) by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for the design of the 3,000 cubic meter Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Transport Barge design on behalf of Conrad Shipyard, L.L.C. of Morgan City, Louisiana. BHGI has a decade long relationship with Conrad Shipyard, L.L.C.

Ed Shearer, P.E., President of Shearer & Assoc., Inc., and Greg Beers, P.E., President of Bristol Harbor Group, Inc., have announced the formation of The Shearer Group, Inc., a new corporate entity that will provide naval architecture, marine engineering, marine surveying and professional engineer services to clients in the inland and offshore marine industry. The Shearer Group, Inc. is a combination of the best of what Mr. Shearer has spent the past several decades building at Shearer & Assoc., Inc.; and that which Mr. Beers and his partners Cory Wood and Andrew Tyska have built at Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. over the past 15 years.

A contract for the Hector P., a new 4,200 hp Z-Drive harbor tug to be built by Orange Shipbuilding for South Puerto Rico Towing Corporation was signed last month. Bristol Harbor Marine Design assisted in the harbor tug contract negotiations along with the acting buyer’s agent, Eric Rivera from Harbor Bunkering Corporation of San Juan, Puerto Rico. “The HECTOR P. is going to raise the bar for tugboats in Puerto Rico,” said Mr. Rivera. BHMD will also be serving as owner’s representative throughout the duration of the project and will be responsible for project inspections and approvals. Design of the new vessel is being completed at Robert Allan, Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C.