Bay Shipbuilding Picks ATB Design

Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering Corp.'s new ATLANTIC III ATB ocean tugboat design has been chosen by Bay Shipbuilding Corp., of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., a unit of Manitowoc Corp., for construction as the powered portion of a new AT/B the yard will build for Penn Maritime, of Stamford, CT. The 140,000 bbl capacity heated ocean tank barge, will be handled by the latest tug design from Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering Corp., a long established firm whose focus is AT/B, or Articulated Tug/Barge design. The new tug, equipped with the INTERCON connection system, measures 123' in length, 38' in beam, powered by twin EMD 12-710G main engines, for a total of 6,000 BHP. The tug will feature a unique hull design that is not only less costly to construct, but will also the new tug to fit the notches of Penn's other INTERCON AT/B barges. Robert P. Hill, the President of Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering Corp., says that the new ATLANTIC III class design was a direct response to an industry request for a tug design for AT/B service that was adaptable to any connection system, yet was simple to build and outfit. "Our clients were asking us to do a mid-level design, that had all of the best features of our highly successful ATLANTIC II class tug, but a bit smaller, and able to be built in fewer man-hours. They wanted the quality and operational benefits of our boats, without having to accept a stock shipyard design that was largely oriented to yard production issues. This design does exactly that, marrying ergonomic design, lower production costs, and the benefit of our years of AT/B design experience." Five of the firm's ATLANTIC II class vessels, which are 124 ' x 40', with a full forecastle have been built to date, with a sixth about to be contracted. Two others are to be built overseas. Owners of that design include Reinauer Transportation, of New York, Allied Transportation of Norfolk, VA, and Exxon-Mobil Corp. The new "stepped-deck" design of the ATLANTIC III builds on what was learned through monitoring the operation of the parent design. It is capable of up accepting up to 8,000 installed BHP, and a wide range of connection systems. "We are excited about working with Bay Shipbuilding once more", said Hill. "We have a long association with Bay Ship, having built the Great Lakes AT/B tug "DOROTHY ANN" with Bay. The barge portion of our Exxon-Mobil unit, designed by CT Marine, was also built there. We know well, the high quality vessels that Bay's people produce, and the level of integrity and fairness found in the yard's dealings with its' customers and vendors. We see this as an honor, and we look forward to the ATLANTIC III design having the same success as it's parent design continues to have." Penn Maritime is also a long-time client and we're honored they will now have one of our new designs in their fleet.", said Hill. In the recent past, Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering designed the INTERCON installation aboard Penn's first AT/B's built at Halter Marine and Alabama Shipyard back in 1994. The firm engineered the tug and barge structures on both the tug and barge into the designs presented by Halter Marine and Alabama Shipyard. Two further units were built to the same engineering in the late 1990's. The firm has also converted two other Penn units to Bludworth-type AT/B's, and handled other projects for Penn such as repowers and tug and barge modifications.