With a few notable exceptions, Vancouver has led the world in the field of small, efficient shiphandling tugs, intended for operation with small crews. Tugs such as the ‘Seaspan Falcon’, vessels in the Cates fleet and ‘Tiger Sun’ have become well known examples of that trend.

Over an eight day period, with visits to several companies and time spent aboard several tugs of different types it became clear that the approach to towage in Vancouver and probably British Columbia in general is in a world of its own when compared with Europe and elsewhere. With the exception of the deep sea and coastal trades, harbour and river towage has historically moved towards smaller more powerful vessels operated by very few people.

Vancouver is a large, well protected, almost landlocked natural harbour frequented by a wide variety of ships ranging from large bulk carriers, container ships and tankers to cruise liners and an almost endless stream of tugs and barges. The latter includes coastal and deep sea traffic in the locally named ’line haul’ trade between Canada, the west coast of the United States and north to Alaska.

A few hours aboard the tug ‘Charles H Cates III’ (abbreviated to ‘Cates 3’ in operation) in Vancouver harbour provided a rapid and interesting introduction to the operational environment. One of a series of four similar ASD tugs in the ten strong Cates fleet, Cates 3 works from a smart base in North Vancouver with ‘marina style’ moorings and its own ‘synchrolift’. The fleet, along with Seaspan, are part of the Washington Group of companies and organisation operating a vast fleet of tugs and barges of all types.

Cates 3 is one of a series of vessels designed by Robert Allan Ltd and completed in 1990. A tug of 22.44m in length with a breadth of 8.53m, the 2,350 bhp vessel has Niigata engines and propulsion units and a bollard pull of approximately 34 tons. The tug is very well fendered, tows from a single drum winch on the foredeck, and operates with a crew of two.

In a working day Cates 3 can be found shiphandling, usually as one of a pair, anywhere in the port area. The tug is operated as a ‘day boat’ with a small mess room for the crew. A centrally placed wheelhouse gives exceptional all round visibility and all of the propulsion, winch and other controls fall neatly to hand. When built, Cates 3 was fitted with a line handling crane on the foredeck but with improved modern towlines it was found unnecessary and removed.

Two man manning in the area is deemed acceptable due to the method of operation, with tugs working in pairs, the close proximity to a home base and other facilities, and the relatively sheltered local environment. Crews work 12 hour shifts, seven days a week, with one week off in two.

The Cates tugs work alongside the ASD tugs ‘Seaspan Falcon’ and ‘Seaspan Hawk’, introduced in 1992.They were developed by Seaspan in conjunction with Robert Allan Ltd following considerable experience with an earlier and larger vessel ‘Seaspan Discovery’. Both tugs were built side by side on a slip at Vancouver Shipyard in only five months. The result was a pair of exceptionally successful shiphandling vessels of 25.9m in length, with a beam of 9.1m, powered by two Detroit Diesels delivering a total of 3,200 bhp. Two Niigata Z-Peller units are fitted, giving the tugs a bollard pull of 40 tons ahead and 38 tons astern. The wheelhouse is designed for one man operation and the tugs work with a total complement of two.

In addition to Cates and Seaspan, shiphandling services are also provided by Smit Harbour Towage Vancouver Inc. The Vancouver fleet was taken over by Smit from Rivtow

Marine in the year 2000, along with similar services at New Westminster and an extensive tug and barge fleet serving the timber trades. Smit’s six tug local shiphandling fleet is headed by the powerful 21.70m long, 10.7m beam, ASD tug ‘Tiger Sun’. Powered by Detroit Diesels generating a total of 5,400 bhp, the vessel has a bollard pull of 70 tons and is exceptionally agile. When this tug, built to a design by local naval architect A G McIlwain, was first introduced in 1999 it caused a stir not just locally but around the world and a considerable and sustained interest in so called ‘compact’ tugs. Again the vessel is operated by a crew of two and has only day boat facilities. A small number of tugs based on the same design have been built for use in Australia and New Zealand. Tiger Sun operates alongside the 15.85m, 3,000 bhp ASD tug ‘Tiger Spirit’ and two 15.24m twin screw vessels of 1,800 bhp.   

Another resident of Vancouver is Island Tug & Barge Ltd, a company operating a fleet of 9 tugs and approximately 16 barges locally and in the Puget Sound, Alaska and Pacific Northwest regions. The company specialise in the transportation oil and other bulk cargoes, in addition to general towage, cable laying and equipment delivery. Tugs in the fleet range from the 41m, 3,000 bhp ‘Island Monarch’ down in size to the 16.4m, 450 bhp ‘Island Chief’. All are fully equipped for coastal or deepsea operation.

During a visit to Island Tug & Barge, the latest addition to their fleet, ‘Island Scout’, was in port and made available for inspection as part of a tour of the company’s plant. Island Scout was completed in the company’s own facilities in 2006 using a hull and structural steelwork fabricated at the Jinling shipyard in China. The twin screw seagoing tug is equipped to tow or push bunker barges delivering fuel to many outlying areas in British Columbia and Alaska. A vessel of only 23.92m length, with a beam of 7.54m and draft of 3.4m, the tug is extraordinarily well equipped and designed to be self sufficient during lengthy tows. Two Cummins KTA 38 main engines, which have a dual rating of 1,050/1,700 bhp, are coupled to a pair of fixed pitch propellers rotating within fixed Kort nozzles. This arrangement gives the tug a bollard pull of 16/25 tons and a maximum free running speed of 11 knots.

Island Scout is remarkably quiet while underway due to flexibly mounted engines and couplings and good sound insulation. In common with almost every Canadian tug of any size, a towing winch is fitted aft and in this case the towing gear includes hydraulically operated tow pins and sheaves to enable a split towing bridle to be rigged for pushing on the bow. A small winch on the foredeck is used to assist in controlling the tug and barge whilst the push-tow is being rigged.

While in Vancouver an invitation to visit the naval architect and design consultant Robert Allan served to confirm just how extensive and wide ranging the activities of his thriving company Robert Allan Ltd really are. At the time, the company had just completed a further expansion of their premises, taking over a third floor in the same office block to house its present staff of some 56 people.

It was Robert Allan who coined the phase ‘a feeding frenzy for new tugs’. He was of course describing the massive demand for new tonnage currently being experienced by the towage industry, a situation set to continue for sometime. And who better to describe the present situation, where even a loose estimate indicates a total of some 600 tugs currently under construction around the world. His company is currently responsible for supplying the designs and considerable expertise that will make a high proportion of those vessels possible, a figure approaching 200 at the last count.

The present company represents the culmination of three generations of ship design expertise. Robert Allan followed his father and grandfather into the design business and the company Robert Allan Ltd (RAL) was eventually incorporated in 1962. Since that date the company has developed dramatically into arguably the foremost design and consultancy business in the world, specialising in tugs, work vessels and highly sophisticated fire fighting craft.

Many of the present designs have developed from those produced originally for the Canadian market and Vancouver in particular. They were innovative tug designs produced for safe and efficient operation by small crews in a specific environment but it was from those early and highly successful designs that many new vessels have evolved for a wider market. Tugs built in British Columbia, Eastern Canada and Turkey provided the spark that ignited a worldwide interest in the work of this Canadian design team. The list of designs emanating from this office, located in a quite city street, continues to grow. Among the most well known are the RAmparts series of azimuthing stern drive (ASD) vessels ranging in size from the 24m RAmparts 2400 through to the 34m RAmparts 3400. The design is highly standardised and intended for ease of series production in yards with little or no design capability. Many dozens of such vessels are now in service around the world, with many more on order.

Subsequent designs include the increasingly popular Z-TECH, a truly innovative tug intended to combine the virtues of the ASD and tractor tug. This highly manoeuvrable vessel, again produced in a range of sizes and power, is being chosen to operate safely with very large ships to provide berthing and escort services. One of the more recent additions to the product range is the RAstar design, intended to meet the demanding requirements of operators of tanker and LNG carriers. Orders for these vessels are increasing and among the first in service will be six RAstars’, four of 80 tons bollard pull and two of 110 tons, for the new Svitzer tugs fleet to service the LNG contracts in Milford Haven UK. Robert Allan was dealing with 50 orders and enquiries for LNG related vessels at the time of my visit. Other designs include tugs for offshore operation and other more highly specialised employment.

It is impossible to mention the work of RAL without mentioning innovation. Much of the work carried out by Robert Allan and his team is consultancy and vessel development. RAL is frequently the first choice for tug operators needing advice and innovative design and development work carried out. This varies from highly specific problem solving to major design, testing and development projects such as the latest ‘Rotor’ tug concept for Kotug.

No trip to Vancouver would be complete without visiting the Fraser River, and New Westminster in particular, which is the focal point of the timber trade and home of the Fraser River Ports. Located 12 miles south of the city of Vancouver, on the apex of the Fraser River delta, New Westminster is the operating base for a five tug fleet serving a wide range of shipping using local facilities. Similar in composition to the Smit fleet in Vancouver and operated by Smit Harbour Towage Westminster Inc, the five tugs are all15.24m (50 feet) in length and comprise two twin screw vessels of 1,200 bhp, one of 1,800 bhp and two with ASD propulsion. Of the latter, one is the 3,000 bhp ‘Westminster Pride’ and the other the 1,300 bhp ‘Westminster Hunter’. Again, these are very well kept ‘day boats’ and a visit to the engineroom on any one of the five, particularly the vessels with ASD propulsion, confirms that each is a veritable floating powerhouse. The engines and propulsion units are located high in the hull in a massively reinforced hull structure, giving the tug enormous strength and weight.

The work done by this fleet of very small tugs is astounding and includes assistance to large bulk carriers, container ships and car transporters. When required, the tugs are diverted to assist with barge work and each vessel is heavily fendered to cater for this very wide range of duties.

Although important, the scale of shipping activities in the Fraser River is dwarfed by a highly active timber trade that continues to receive and distribute logs arriving from often remote sites all over British Columbia. Raw timber is shipped into the area mainly by self-discharging deck barges, marshalled into booms (rafts) by one man operated dozer tugs and towed to fresh water storage areas well up stream to avoid damage from the ‘dreaded Toredo Worm’ and similar wood boring parasites. Once in the river, logs are traded and sold, often requiring further movement between storage grounds, and finally, delivery to various timber mills. Once sorted, logs are made up into ‘sections’ contained by four ‘boom sticks’, 20m long logs, chained together to form a rectangle. Contained within the boom sticks are single logs or bundles and each ‘section’ is identified by a conspicuous label.

Tows are made up by chaining together a number of sections to form a boom. In the Fraser River, this can vary from just a few sections to an average boom of a dozen or so, and up to 30 on long river tows.

Associated with this almost continual movement of logs is the transportation of finished timber products and above all else wood chips, produced in huge quantities and taken for pulping in massive, high sided chip barges.

To serve every aspect of this highly active trade is a massive fleet of small, purpose built tugs and other support craft operated by over 100 companies. In common with the majority of tugs in British Columbia, most of the craft in the timber trades have a very high power to size ratio. Most logging tugs are of heavily reinforced steel construction and average between 9.14m and 13.72m (30-45 feet) in length. A high proportion are twin screw, fitted with keel cooling to enable them to work in shallow water, and fitted with propulsion nozzles to give maximum bollard pull.

A trip on the 13.11m (43 foot) twin screw logging tug ‘Ken McKenzie’, operated by Tidal Towing Ltd, provided a graphic insight into this arduous and skilful occupation. Powered by two Cummins diesels producing a total of 1,300 bhp and driving a pair of fixed pitch propellers via ZF gearboxes, the tug has four rudders and breathtaking agility. Ken Mackenzie has a crew of two, a captain and deckhand, a normal arrangement in the timber trades. The crews work 12 hour shifts starting at 07:00 and 19:00 each day and are usually relieved by fast water taxi, allowing the tug to remain manned throughout, wherever it is in the river.

On this occasion Ken Mackenzie was carrying out a typical tow downriver with a 13 section boom from a freshwater storage area to a mooring in the North Arm of the Fraser delta. The tow is prepared by identifying the required sections by their labels, collecting them together and securing them with short chains and quick release toggle couplings. All of this is done by the crew of two, with the deckhand moving across the logs in spiked boots, carrying chains and a long aluminium ‘pike pole’. Like all logging tugs, Ken Mackenzie has teeth welded to the stem bar to assist with pushing logs and sections into position. The tug can be controlled from the wheelhouse, the flying bridge, or at deck level on either side of the towing winch. Almost every tug of any size is equipped with a powerful winch carrying a steel wire towline. Again in common with most other tugs of its type, Ken Mackenzie has very little freeboard and extremely low bulwarks aft, allowing easy passage between tug and boom for the necessarily fit and agile deckhand.

The boom was skilfully put together, known as ‘yarding’, and towed downstream, negotiating a number of bridges and a tricky exit into the North Arm near New Westminster. There another few sections were added by the tug ‘Harken 5’ from an associate company prior to arrival at its destination. The power and manoeuvrability of the tug and skill of the crew was a pleasure to watch but this is a hard working environment. Each vessel carries an impressive array of high powered Halogen floodlights on it’s mast to enable the work of identification and yarding to be carried out night and day.

Among the many interesting craft at work on the Fraser River and elsewhere in the area are the support craft such as tenders and water taxies. These are almost exclusively built locally and constructed in welded aluminium alloy. The standard of workmanship is high and considering the working environment, in a river where stray logs and other floating debris is commonplace, confidence in their ability to withstand rough usage is obvious. Travelling at 26 knots in a seemingly fragile water taxi in a river full of logs does not come naturally to a visiting Englishman.

Included in the fleet of aluminium work vessels is a growing number of high speed tugs, built with a very real towing capability and the ability to travel rapidly from one area to another. One such vessel is the ‘Nellie Irene’, a 10.36m (34 foot) twin screw tug of 800 bhp, operated by Forest Marine Ltd. Designed by A G McIlwain, the tug can tow with a bollard pull of 6 tons at up to 2.7 knots or move between jobs at its top free running speed of 27 knots.

The towage industry in Vancouver is different in so many ways to that in Europe and elsewhere but there is an increasing interchange in terms of design expertise and manufacturing. This is particularly noticeable in the field of propulsion and equipment. Names such as Cummins, Caterpillar, Furuno, Kort, Wagner, Kobelt, Fernstrum and ZF are just a few from a long list that are as common on the rivers of British Columbia as they are in Europe.