Anyone into tug boats?
 

1910 NYC harbor tug undergoing a full restoration
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Tugs are very cool. I like them because they're ugly, small, very powerful, and every ship, no matter how sleek and opulent, eventually needs one to get in and out of harbor.

I've always wondered how a tug is set up: do they usually have just one big honkering engine that enables them to move a big liner, or is it all about a small push and leaving the rest to momentum?

Great photos, BTW.

second to david's questions. Hw big is the motor in these things?

Jared, you need to quit wearing your pants so high.

Wood planked hull? Cool.
Here in the mid west we have tows. Very different boats, but very cool. Couple of 3000HP turbo diesels driving through Kort nozzles...

The simple answer is lots of power. If a tug is pushing or pulling a load they have to constantly overcome the resistance of wind and water. If it is a harbor tug maneuvering a ship into berth, they are constantly making adjustments. Granted, the better the pilot, the fewer the adjustments they will make and they will use less throttle. Still when you are trying to maneuver a 600+ foot ship weighting 100's of thousands of tonns, you need a lot of thrust to make any significant change to their vector.

The older tugs (up to the '60's and 70's often only had one large engine (600 - 2,000 hp the normal range) turning one large propeller with one big rudder. Then you started to see the twin screw (two propellers with two rudders) became much more common with bigger engines. Then the kort nozzle (basically placing the propeller inside a circular shroud to get more power/efficiency) were added. Now the most powerful ocean going tugs are usually twin screw with tens of10,000hp or more.

The newest developments in tugs are the introduction of "tractor" tugs. These are tugs with with cycloidal drives (look like an egg beater sticking out the bottom of the hull) or Z drives (properllers mounted on vertical shafts that can rotate 360 degrees) which allow the tug to generate full thrust in any direction, including sideways. This is very useful for a harbor tug which needs to be very powerful and maneuverable when maneuvering large ships into port. These tractor tugs are very cool and a hec of a lot of fun to drive.

Bill - I love the old harbor tugs. They have way nicer lines than any of the new stuff. Thanks for posting the pics. My favorite tugs are the old Miki class built by the Navy just before WWII. Ever seen one of those. Their lines are simultainiously graceful and powerful.

Brooke

My nephew spends weeks at a time on a tug towing barges full of gasoline up and down the west coast, Alaska and Hawaii. He loves it.

I knew another Seattle boater would chime in :). The tugs with the vertical shafts are SO cool. During the openning day of boat season here in Seattle, there is a parade of boats that passes through a channel nearby (by the University). The tugs with the rotating props can do these amazing manuvers in the confined space of the channel. Very cool to watch.

great thread. nice pics.

Especially when sitting in a kayak just outside the channel. A couple of years ago I watched a fire tug do 360's a mere 20 feet from my bow. Very cool.

The tractor tugs throw off a hell of a wake when they are pushing - had 2 feet of water break over my bow one day - just outside of the channel -

Ya know I may just have run into two of those. I need to go through the pics from the last run up from St. Johns.

We stopped in Bermuda for a few days, ran into a couple of US Army tugs that had come from Seattle(or at least some place way up on the West coast near Canada), One tug was towing the other to England for some kind of major refit. They were neat things, and the Army guys were a gas to go drinking w/.http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/...s/beerchug.gif

The above is undergoing a total restoration, originally it had a steam engine which was later replaced by a monster diesel. Don't know the rated power though.

We have a 150 ton lift that can't pick up even some of the smaller ones that stop in here, the weight is all engine and gearbox

I've seen a few articles where they were converted to live aboards.

I used to operate a a ship assist tug in San Diego. Funnest job I ever had. Have since upgraded my license and now sail unlimitted tonnage.