FEATURE
BOATBUILDING
For Reinauer Transportation Senesco Builds the
First Facet Tugs
Story and Images by Don Sutherland
The world's first Facet Tug, the Ruth M. Reinauer, was delivered by the
Senesco Shipyard in Kingston, Rhode Island, last April. The Ruth's
sister, the Laurie Ann Reinauer, is scheduled for launch at just about
the time this is published. Both vessels represent a new style of ATB
design and construction, insofar as the Facet Tug has not an inch of
curved steel anywhere. It's composed completely of flat steel, multiple
chines taking the place of shaped steel. The result is that a smaller
shipyard can make a large tug -- the Ruth and the Laurie Ann are
116-feet overall, with 4000HP of MTU 16V 4000 M60 power -- at a moderate
cost. The half-year of experience gained between the two launches
revealed only one area for improvement. "Shortly after the Ruth was
delivered," said Senesco project manager George Wu, "it was decided that
performance would be a little better if the pitch of the propellers was
slightly increased." Another specification given by Mr. Wu was the
building time of the newer tug, which he described as "10% shorter" than
the original. Well sure, when
you get to the second one, a lot of the things you had to figure-out for
the first one are already settled. Even progressions like moving the
tug from the construction area to the drydock from which it will be
launched went quicker with the Laurie Ann. Senesco used a brace of
Scheuerle shipyard transporters to move the finished 82-foot tall boat
to its launching point. The trek took five hours for the Ruth -- "we
stopped every few minutes to check everything," said George Wu, "but
following that experience it was more routine with the Laurie Ann,"
whose corresponding journey to the drydock took only about an hour. Also
trimmed was the part that was most challenging on the Ruth, the
construction of tanks within tanks, which make the vessel effectively a
double-hull tug. The operating space inside the tanks was tight for the
workers, and ventilation was always an issue. With the first tug under
their belt, the Senesco workers found the second one all the more
accommodating. Before its first tugs, Senesco had about a decade of
building tanker barges in the 80,000-
George Wu, Senesco's project manager for the Facet Tugs, provides a
sense of scale for the large vessel. The compliments for the shipyard's
workers in building these first Facet Tugs have been consistent in their
praise, and generally nonstop. (Photo: Don Sutherland)
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Maritime Reporter & Engineering News