Tugnology ’19
Powerful Force
Foss Maritime
Tug design, tanker escort tugs and more at Tugnology ’19.
Foss Maritime’s 8,000-hp tractor tug Lindsey Foss awaits a tanker in the Puget Sound.
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ot every tug claiming to be escort rated can perform the required duties safely and effectively. That was one of the messages delivered by world-renowned tug designer Robert Allan of Robert Allan Ltd. at May’s Tugnology ’19 conference in Liverpool, England. Tugnology is a twoday technical conference on the design, construction, operation and economics of tugs. Allan, the executive chairman of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based naval architect and marine engineering firm, provided some background on the history of tug escorts before co-worker Brendan Smoker presented RAL’s paper on escort tug safety. “Thirty years ago, the world of tug design really got turned on its head,” Allan said. “The Exxon Valdez incident had regulatory repercussions. What arose from that in the United States was the regulatory act known as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Tug designer Robert Allan of Robert Allan Ltd.
That act invoked tug escorts. But the reality was that the world of tug operators, tug owners, and tanker owners and operators didn’t really understand what they were asking for.” No one really understood what was about to happen. “But the world that is represented by the community in this room really responded to that challenge and moved ahead,” said Allan. In the early 1990s, Foss Maritime designed a pair of big tractor tugs, the 137'×46' Lindsey Foss and Garth Foss. The 8,000-hp tugs were built by www.workboat.com • AUGUST 2019 • WorkBoat
ABR Company Ltd.
By David Krapf, Editor in Chief
