Time for the Tugs!

Here we are again, Aloha Friday before Labor Day weekend, and here in NYC, Labor Day Weekend means IT'S TIME FOR THE TUGS! That's right, once again this Sunday a whole thundering herd of the harbor's heavy horses come out to play, going head to head in the 21st Annual Great North River Tugboat Race and Competition. Tons of fun and admission is free (although for $25 you ride the spectator boat, that's a very reasonably-priced ticket for a great way to see the race, although you miss out a bit on the on-shore stuff). The trouble er excitement kicks off with the Post Parade at 10 a.m. and as usual, the event is centered around Pier 84, North River, at the Hudson River end of 44th Street. For full information, visit WorkingHarbor.com.


Sadly, so sadly, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it this year (in fact if I don't get my rear in gear today I'm going to be working on Sunday, bah...) but here are some of my favorite shots from last year.

Oh, and that winning line toss above? They made it look easy but with the bollard that close to the fence, that took a whole lot of skill - as I recall about 80% of the throws missed!  

For more from last year, click on the "Great North River Tugboat Race" tag below - I'm not sure whether I had more fun at the race itself, or writing things up (especially the Post Parade post where I went completely bonkers - in a good way though, I think - looking up the vital stats of every single boat in the race)!

Line-throwing and bow-to-bow pushing contest photos. Great North River Tugboat Race & Contest Part...um, I lost track

Oops. I was being overly optimistic when I said I was going to write a post about paddling tonight. That happens sometimes in September - I just got going on another one of those time-sensitive things and all the sudden, oops, nine PM. And I knew I had worked myself cross-eyed when I was approaching the Victoria's Secret store and was trying to read the word that's written over the latest buxom-beauty photos in the windows and my first take was "bulbous". Well, they are, sort of, or at least parts of them are. But that's not exactly a word that I would think of as making people rush in off the street to buy foundation garments. Bit of a head-scratcher there.

Also a pretty good hint that I'd worked about an hour longer than was going to be conducive to writing a nice post about my first wonderful, lovely, fabulous solo paddle in I can't remember how long.

Oh right -- "fabulous". That was actually the word, it was just my tired eyes playing funny word-association games that made me see "bulbous".

 Anyways, sorry about the tease, but in the meantime, here are some more tugboat photos. I really am close to done now!  I'm going to put the last two on-water contests up here now, but I'm going to switch the order to  put my favorite photos first. The line-throwing contest was actually part of why I didn't go on the spectator boat - you miss most of this if you're on the spectator boat, and if you can get a good spot (which I did), this is tons of fun to take photos of! So here we go again -

Grrrr! Go Go Growler!

Susan Miller (I think)

Freddie K Miller 

Catherine C. Miller - we (the audience) were all cracking up at this guy with his old-school cig-in-the-corner-of-the-mouth routine.  If he'd made it you would've heard the howl of glee in Staten Island! 

He didn't, though, and since the Catherine C. Miller was the last in the lineup, a couple of other people tried. This guy made a highly credible attempt, and then unfortunately the boat swiveled around a little too far and the big post on the bow was blocking my view when the kid in the yellow lifejacket gave it a shot. I don't know if it would've been strictly regulation, but I bet that if the kid had made it, the Working Harbor Committee would've awarded him 3rd place. 

BTW, if you watched the videos, you may have heard the chants of "Cut The Fence! Cut The Fence!", and a friend also left a comment about it - the organizers did say that this was the worst year ever as far as failed attempts, but it would actually make for a more hotly-contested contest - I bet you'd get a lot more wild throws like this one (Vulcan III, I think they were first and their thrower really went for a long shot - the target bollard is over by the American flag!). Unlikely to happen, of course, but it would be fun.

And now, backing up a bit for the bow-to-bow pushing - actually this contest was where being on the spectator boat was great, I got a few good shots with the zoomier of my 2 lenses (not one of those gigantic bird scopes, but I've been very happy with it for shooting ships & boats & stuff), but I think Vlad and Johnna got better shots, and then of course Tugster was actually on a tug - but here are my best efforts!

Buchanan vs. Buchanan

Quantico Creek vs. Little Toot (as Vlad & Johnna mentioned, some of the matchups aren't exactly even!)

Quantico Creek vs. Maurania III - Tugster actually has a picture of this match (a little more even, right) from on board the Maurania III. 

And this was what Vlad & Johnna referred to as "Miller melee" - I couldn't make out exactly what was going on out there in that tugboat scrum, but apparently the Miller tugs all started a free-for all! Oh, btw, in my Post Parade post, I'd been wondering if there was a relationship between the Debora Miller (from Miller Marine Services in Port Jefferson, NY) and the rest of the Miller tugs (from Miller's Launch on Staten Island) - well, Capt. Doswell from the Working Harbor Committee (and he and Jean are also old friends from my years at Pier 63 Maritime) answered that, the owners of the two Miller companies are brothers, so I guess the boats are cousins.

And guess what? That's it for the on-water section of the 20th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race and Contest!

Line Heaving Contest - Video Clips

Well, I may actually do a real post tonight (got out for my first solo paddle in ages yesterday, it was lovely, and it was also a bit surprising to me how many of my J-Bay paddler friends busted loose and went solo yesterday - nice day for it, though) but here's a little fun on my lunch break - yep, more tugboats!

I switched to videos for part of the line-heaving contest & was very happy to capture the 1st and 2nd place heavers (almost said tossers but I think that's an insult some places). There was no 3rd place because there were actually only 2 who snagged the bollard at all. I'd uploaded the 2 succesful throws to YouTube a couple of days after the race; last night I added Meagan Ann's first try because it was such a perfect demonstration of how the fence behind the bollard was causing issues. The Working Harbor folks said this year was unusual, though - it's definitely a tricky setup but they've been using the same bollard for the last few years & they've never seen so many misses!

Here was the 2nd place winner, Buchanan 12. The square bow that renders them less competitive in the race turns into a competitive advantage here, I think, plus they'd already watched a number of other tugs try and fail, and the captain wisely chose a very slow approach. He puts his thrower right where he needs to be & then holds position until the job is done. No record-breaker, sure (in fact it's 1:30 in the video when the thrower really starts organizing himself for the throw) but good enough for second place this year!

And then, of course, the Meagan Ann came back for her 2nd run (each tug gets 2). I believe that proper innertubes parlance for this would be "FTW". For The Win. I mean, like, totally. I had almost switched back to photo mode for this run but there was suddenly this sense among the crowd that maybe this was going to be the winning run (I heard more than one person saying things like "He's gonna get it this time", and they'd come so close in their first try) and I decided to stick with video, and I was glad I did, this was just beautifully done.

MMMM SPINACH!

Click on any picture to see these faces properly.

Popeye Spinach-Eating Contest at the Labor Day weekend Tugboat Race & Contest. Yep, back to that now! This was the childrens' division. Then things got UGLY.

Great North River Tugboat Race Part 4 - The Race (and gratuitous Duke)

As usual, click on any picture to see a larger version.

And off they go...

And here they come again! Chaaaaaarge!

This picture has focus issues but I'm putting it in anyways 'cause this was an interesting moment of drama in the proceedings. The race was well underway when all of us spectators on Pier 84 heard a police siren approaching from the south. At first I thought it was from the West Side Highway but then I started thinking "No, that sounds like it's coming up the river". A second later, this cigarette boat came screaming into view from behind the Circle Line pier. Now, I don't know if the people in the motorboat had actually thought that with a super studly speedboat like theirs, it would be fun to play Miami Vice, or if maybe they just couldn't hear the sirens or didn't realize the sirens were for them - whichever it was, when they finally spotted the wall of foam and steel that was charging down the river towards them they instantly rethought things...yikes! turn arooooound! Run away! Run awaaaay! 

Here's the Lincoln Sea crossing the finish line (marked by the Drifter, the bargelike boat with the crane & the large American flag (positioned in line with the slightly taller building with the 2 spires & the flag on the shore). Johnna and Vlad were on the Circle Line boat the stern of which  you can see just behind the tug - their pictures of the Lincoln Sea in the post I linked to earlier today are just spectacular.

Here comes the rest of the field

Meaghan Ann surprises everyone by passing the Weddell Sea to taking second place overall, and by a decicisive margin. This was a notable feat because several of the boats that she beat had a LOT more horsepower than she does - in fact the tugs are broken down into classes by size - Class A is the behemoths like the Lincoln Sea; Class B is the next one down, still VERY big boats but the expected results would be for the overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd to be taken by the Class A's.

In fact, the feat was so unusual that the race committee took the unusual measure of having the captain of the Meaghan Ann join the captain of the winner, Lincoln Sea, in holding up the first-place overall trophy during the awards ceremony.

Back to the finish line - here are the Weddell Sea, the Maurania III and the Quantico Creek battling it out for 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. These are all Division A boats.

Here comes the 2nd place winner in Division B, the Freddie K. Miller, followed by the Buchanan 12 (the last of the Division A boats - the push boats with their square bows may not be built for speed, but the design worked nicely for the line-tossing - that's the next post though!) and Little Toot, first of the C class tugs to cross the line.

Deborah Miller (white) and Gage Paul Thornton, Division B 3rd & 4th, respectively 

R to Left - Susan Miller, Buchanan 1, Thornton Bros., Vulcan & Pegasus

Susan Miller, Growler and Vulcan II at the finish

Hooray for the Pegasus!

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, Shawn Miller

And last but not least, at least in the amount of fun being had by the people on board, give it up for DA BRONX!!! Wooooo! 

And that was it for the 20th Annual Running of the Great North River Tugboat Race.

For full results (and links to a bunch of other websites with excellent pictures - I think we've all been cross-linking but there's a nice list there now) - Click here to visit WorkingHarbor.com .

And I'll be carrying on as a tugboat blog for a couple more days too -- yet to come: Bow to bow pushing, line tossing, spinach eating, tattoos and Duke. No, wait, I can't wait for Duke. He's too cute. Here you go. Gratuitous Duke.

Want More Tugs?

I'll have more tonight (uninterrupted by Laser regatta pix, in fact - I thought I would have to take a break from tug pix, but the race got cancelled due to wild weather although I still got out for a bit, jumped into my kayak and joined few friends were going out to play in the wind, we had a fantastic time - folks who went out, if you're reading, thanks again, that was terrific!) but in the meantime, Vlad and Johnna have a great rundown of the whole day w/pix & links over on Wind Against Current. Enjoy!

Tugboats collide in the 20th annual Great North River Tugboat Race

Taking a quick breather between quarter-end reports right now - had to share this, which was posted on the Working Waterfront Committee Facebook page by David Silver, who turns out to be the DJ Silver who'd left the info on the Little Toot in the comments on my Post Parade post. This took my home computer a while to load last night, but it was totally worth the wait, it's excellent. Pilothouse & VHF chatter are half the fun.



BTW I think everyone was fine, there was never any indication at the finish line that anything was wrong & in fact watching this last night was the first I'd heard about any mishap. Tough boats, tough people, think they just bounced off each other and kept right on going!

Quick Lunchtime Post - A Bit About The Boat Named The Bronx, and my what a racy September I'm having!

Wow...amazing how short a week gets when you take a sick day during a week that was only 4 days long to begin with. I'm glad I did, I never give myself the 2nd day of a cold to recover (this one started on Sunday night, I thought it was just bad allergies until I woke up Monday morning to find that the sniffles had bloomed into a classic head cold) and I'm almost over it today - but man, have I got a lot of work to do. Still hope to get those links to the tugboat info sign in tonight but don't know if I'll get another post up. In the meantime, though, it turns out that the Working Harbor has had a good article up on their blog about the most charmingest tug in the race, The Bronx - I've been so curious about this sturdy little mini-tug, fun to finally find out a little more about her story and I just had to take a bit of my lunch hour to share. Click here to read.

And as long as I'm posting -- it just hit me that I'm having an awfully racy September! shhh don't tell TQ! ;D

Seriously, though - there was the tugboat race on Sunday; Saturday is Sebago's annual Laser Division 8 Regatta (looks like it's gonna be good racing, the Saturday forecast is for: S wind 15 to 18 kt. A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11am. Seas around 1 ft), for which I'll be serving on the race committee, as I have every year since we started running them; the weekend of the 22nd is the Sebago Cup (as featured in Sailing World, woohoo!) and I finally get to be in it (fingers crossed for weather I can manage...much over 15 kts and I'll be taking pictures from my kayak!)...and then for something completely different, I'm looking forward to seeing some lovely racehorses when my family gets together in Kentucky later in the month to celebrate my mom and dad's 50th anniversary (another woohoo!). Boy, and I thought August was a fast month - September's gonna be one big "Whooooosh".

Oh, hey, and if any tri-state-area Laser sailors happen to have stumbled across this and are interested in our regatta on Saturday, visit http://www.sebagocanoeclub.org/sailing.html - scroll down to "Racing" for links to the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions. Love to see you on the bay!

Post Parade - Great North River Tugboat Race Part 3

Updated 9/6, at the end of a very long work day - YES! Through the assistance of one friend, one reader, and the Working Harbor Committee blog, I've gotten info on the 3 tugs I'd come up short on when I posted this on Tuesday night - The Bronx, Little Toot, and the Viking III! Having those, I've also run through tonight and added links to the Tug Info site for those boats I found there. ALL PAU!
Thanks, Vlad, DJ, and Mai - I never would've actually finished this without your help.

10:00 am, first Sunday in September - Time for the Post Parade!

This may be a post that only a true tugboat geek will enjoy, but here it is, the  grand Post Parade of the  20th annual Great North River Tugboat Race (imagine cacophonous blowing of whistles here)!

Congrats to all who raced (and even the one who didn't - still lovely to see that nice old tug back after such uncertainty...see last picture for details)

For more on most of the tugs, visit TugboatInformation.com Harold E. Tartell and Birk Thomas's absolutely amazing compendium of - well - just what the name says, tugboat information. The details I've given here are from there unless otherwise noted, and I've barely scratched the surface. Where I used the site, I've given links to the individual tugs' pages - their entire life histories are in there, it's really quite fascinating, the changes of owners, names, and homeports (and colors!) some of these tugs have gone through. Seems that the towing industry doesn't give much credence to the superstition against changing a boat's name.

Quantico Creek

Built: 2010 Builder: Chesapeake Shipbuilding, Salisbury, MD

Owner: Vane Brothers, Baltimore, MD.

Hull Length: 94' Width: 32' Depth: 13.5'

 Engines/Horsepower: twin Caterpillar 3512 main engines with a combined 3,000 horsepower.
TugboatInformation Page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=54&fs

Meaghan Ann

Built: 1975 Builder: Marine Power and Equipment, Seattle, WA

Owner: DonJon Marine, Hillside, NJ

Hull Length: 73.5' Width: Draft: 

Engines/Horsepower: twin Caterpillar D-399 diesel main engines with a combined 2250 HP.

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=979&fs

Maurania III

Built: 2004 Builder: Providence Steamboat Company, Fall River, MA

Owner:McAllister Towing and Transportation

Hull Length: 101.6 Width: 33.5 Draft: 17

Engines/Horsepower:

(Winner of the 2012 Best-Looking Tug Award - very sharp!)
TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=495&fs

Buchanan I

Built: 1967 Builder: Equitable Equipment, Madisonville, LA

Owner: Buchanan Marine

Hull Length: 89.4' Width: 28.1 Draft: 9.5'

Engines/Horsepower: Twin screw, rated at 2,200 horsepower

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=303&fs

Little Toot

UPDATED - Google searching Little Toot when you're looking for info on anything but a famous fictional tugboat is an exercise in futility (at least when you have a cold and your self-assigned research project is keeping you up way later than you'd planned), and I'd given up without trying too hard last night, but DJ Silver left the following info in comments this morning - thank you, DJ, and Joseph Kemp, too!

DJ's comment: Regarding Little Toot, she apparently was originally Fireboat 7 for the Wilmington, DE fire department and was retired in the early 90's.
Year built 1977
Length 65 Ft. Beam 22 Ft. Draft 5 ft 10 inches

Speed 13 Knots Fuel 5000 gallons

Propulsion Twin Detroit Diesels 8V71

Fire Pump 7200 GPM @ Detroit 12V71 Ingersaw Ram Single Stage Pump

Information is Courtesy of Joseph Kemp

Catherine C. Miller

Hull Length: 65' Width: 23.9' Draft: 9.1'

Engines/Horsepower: 1400

The Catherine C. Miller and the next few tugs are all from Miller's Launch in Staten Island, and I can't seem to find any Millers in TugboatInfo, so all information on them is from the Miller's Launch website. 

BTW, Miller's Launch won "Best Team Award" for sending out nearly their entire fleetto race! I can't even begin to imagine what this must have cost but it's got to be a lot - it was really terrific of them to turn out this way. 

Susan Miller

Hull Length: 68.4' Width: 23.9' Draft: 9.3'

Engines/Horsepower: 1200

Freddie K. Miller

Hull Length:  68.4' Width: 23.9' Draft: 10.5'

Engines/Horsepower: 1800

Shawn Miller

Hull Length: 50' Width: 20' Draft: 7.7'

Engines/Horsepower:

Debora Miller

Interesting thing here - I assumed that she was part of the Miller's Launch family, but I found her stats on the website of Miller Marine Services.  Any relation, or just a coincidence, I wonder? Miller is a fairly common name, but it seems like the working maritime world is a kind of small one note later in September: Capt. Doswell from the Working Harbor Committee saw this post & answered that question - the owners of the 2 companies are brothers, definitely related. Anyways. Stats, stet!

Hull Length: 75' Width: 24.2'  Draft: 7 - 8'

Engines/Horsepower:(2)16V149 Detroit's Diesels 2060HP

The Bronx (Hey, Salty!!!)

Again, sorry, not much info on this smallest entrant. 25' length is all I recall, and I can't find her online anywhere - no details, at least, although lots of pictures! Winner of the 2012 "Little Toot" award (although Salty did NOT take home the mascot award this time - as I mentioned, there was some great competition this year). Update 9/6 - Her age and horsepower remain unknown, but it turns out that Mai over at the Working Waterfront had posted an article about this charming but tough little tug - another rescue story of someone who sees an old boat rusting away at a pier somewhere and thinks "That's worth saving". The article includes incredible before-and-after shots - click here to read it.

Back to Tugboatinfo.com info now -

Weddell Sea

Built: 2007 Builder: Sea Boats Inc., Fall River, MA

Owner: Kirby Inland Transportation, Channelview, TX

Hull Length: 104.9' Width: 37.8' Draft: 19.5'

Engines/Horsepower: two Caterpillar 3516 B diesel engines, rated 4,500 horsepower.

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=2500&fs

Lincoln Sea - BIGGEST boat in the race!

Built: 2000 Builder: J.M. Martinac Shipyard, Tacoma, WA

Owner: Kirby Inland Transportation, Channelview, TX

Hull Length: 118.6' Width: 40' Draft: 22'

Engines/Horsepower: 2 EMD 16-710 main engines, rated 8,000 horsepower

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=2441&fs

The Growler (from the US Merchant Marine Academy - the kids all love the Growler!)

Built: 1962

Owner: US Merchant Marine Academy

Hull Length: 64' 11" Width: 19' 0" Draft: 6' 2"

Engines/Horsepower: Caterpillar D375, 400 HP

Lt. Michael P. Murphy

The Lt. Michael P. Murphy is a retired 46' Coast Guard buoy tender. Google searching led to an interesting small Flickr gallery of her refit by a gentleman who bought her on e-bay - click on the name to see that. What a project!

Vulcan III

Can't find much info on this one, and it's getting too late for me to look much longer - sorry!

And here's an update at the end of a very long work day on 9/6/2012 - A very very big "Thank you" to Vlad from Wind Against Current for taking the time to hunt down an article about the Vulcan III! Professional Mariner featured her back in April - click here to read. Vlad, thanks again for finding that - as I said in the comments and in a recent post, I've got so much work to do this week, and left up to me, there was a good chance this last "button" was going to be left undone, but I'm just tickled that I've now actually got info on all 21 of the entrants who made it to Pier 84 on Saturday!

Buchanan 12

Built: 1972 Builder: Halter Marine Services, Lockport, LA.

Owner: Buchanan Marine

Hull Length: 86.5' Width: 30' Draft: 9.5'

Engines/Horsepower: 3000 hp

TugboatInformation page: http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=307&fs

Info for next 2 boats from Thornton Towing and Transportation website

Thornton Bros.

Built: 1958

Owner: Thornton Towing & Transportation

Hull Length:83' Width: 27' Draft: 9'

Engines/Horsepower: 1600 Horsepower 16-567 EMD diesel engine.

Gage Paul Thornton

New boat for the Thorntons: "Rated for coastwise towing, she is powered by a 1,000 HP diesel and towing winch for offshore assignments. 68' long x 20' x 7' 6" draft."

Pegasus

Info from the tug's website - click on her name. A true NY Harbor classic!

Built: 1907 Builder: Skinner Shipbuilding Yard, Baltimore, MD

Owner: The Tug Pegasus Preservation Project

Hull Length:101' Width: 23' Draft: 12'

Engines/Horsepower: Pegasus is now powered by a 900 horsepower General Motors diesel engine - before that, she was steam-powered. She worked NY harbor for 90 years, when her final owner, Captain Pamela Hepburn, decided that she had to be retired and preserved, creating (with much help from friends) the Preservation Project for that purpose. And hasn't the project done well? Pegasus won "Best Vintage Tug" this year, and Capt. Hepburn was actually quite pleased with how she did in the race, too.

W.O. Decker

OK...this is both my most favorite and least favorite picture from the post parade.

Most favorite because it's a nice shot of the W.O. Decker, with the GW Bridge and all the other tugs parading in the background.

Least favorite because she should have been headed north with all the others. As I was suspecting when I took this shot, she was about to withdraw from the race.

But at least she was here this year - it's good to see that she's out & about again under the new management of the South Street Seaport Museum.

W.O. Decker details from Tug44.org

Built: 1930

Owner: South Street Seaport Museum (reopened in 2012 under the auspices of the Museum of the City of New York)

Hull Length: 52' Width: 15' Draft: 5'6"

Engines/Horsepower: Originally steam, now a 175 HP diesel.

And that wraps it up for the post parade! Still to come - the race itself, the line toss, the spinach eating contests, and more. Can't wait - or want to see things from a different perspective? Head on over to http://tugster.wordpress.com/ - he was on one of the tugs this year!