Tractor tugs san francisco bay

The SFMX publishes a list of escort tugs and their kips, as well as a matrix of kip requirements. The Bay is divided into six zones; escorts are required in four of those six.

The matrix shows the required kips for tankers of a given displacement transiting the four zones during a slack or following current. As displacement, following current, or a combination of the two changes so does the required kips. A tug that can provide the best available technology and a high kip rating is a valuable safety asset to the petroleum industry. This is especially true in San Francisco where a tugs ability to perform during escort is measured by its kips. The Delta Billie and Delta Cathryn, delivered in , are identical hp azimuthing stern drive tractor tugs, with static bollard pulls of more than 90 tons.

Dimensions of ft. The goal: provide as many single tug escorts as possible, without compromising safety. Individually they provide enough kips to allow for one tug during escorts, a cost savings to operators. Baydelta has been in San Francisco since evolving its operations with changing times. San Francisco offers a combination of conditions that many other west coast ports do not.

Normal inbound escorts from sea to Martinez are roughly a six hour transit from the time a tug arrives on station outside the Golden Gate Bridge, in zone 1, to the tankers berth in zone 6.

Just over 40 nm from the sea buoy. The escort will pass through three bridge spans, may encounter strong currents and winds, navigational channels providing draft considerations, as well as commercial and recreational traffic. Once a tanker crosses through the Golden Gate Bridge after a pre-escort conference is held, a single course is rarely held for more than 3 nm. Ships are required to keep their escort within ft. Beyond this requirement, Pilots tether the tug astern during the entire trip.

This offers the most immediate tug response, as the tug is able to provide immediate steering and braking assistance. The tugs can produce forces in excess of tons in the direct and indirect modes. Two or three times each year ships will find themselves without power somewhere offshore within striking range of San Francisco Bay tugs. When that happens, Baydelta tugs usually get the call because they all have towing winches and they are generally available, unlike most other tugs that are otherwise attached to a barge or committed to other work assignments.

In addition, according to Henning, the company does a lot of dead ship towing and barge assist work within the bay area. The last new tug operated by the company was Delta Deanna, delivered in The company, having been initially formed with five conventional tugs, chartered in its first two tractor tugs from Florida. Those first two tractors were returned to their owners in , following the arrival of the first new tractors.

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The sound of power. The job is to escort a tanker vessel from an anchorage just south of the Bay Bridge up to a refinery dock in Martinez, a trip of about 30 miles.

It is a pretty day. The bay is like a postcard: no fog, no howling wind, a few clouds, the usual afternoon breeze and a flood tide pushing us up the bay. The Delta Billie brings a ship pilot to the vessel, which turns out to be an unusual-looking rig called an articulated tug barge.

It's a foot-long tug more or less permanently attached to what Horn thinks is a foot-long barge filled with oil, diesel. Mariners regard this kind of vessel with an amused curiosity. From the side, it looks like a conventional tanker, but it's cheaper to run.

The Commitment's home port is San Francisco; it flies the U. The Delta Billie tags along after the Commitment, astern sometimes, alongside other times, under seven bridges, from the Bay Bridge to the three bridges that cross the upper bay near Martinez.

When the Commitment got up to Martinez, the Delta Bill put a line aboard, and spun the ship around so that it was facing back down the bay, and held it pinned to the dock while the tank vessel's crew tied it up.

Ships make the news when they crash into something. Not this time.