It’s been a long and winding journey for the latest tug to join the fleet of Dawn Services LLC, Harvey, La. The 22-year-old vessel is being refurbished after spending several years laid up in Pascagoula, Miss.
The tug was built in 2003, but its story dates to the early 1980s when a group of keels were laid for new tugs designed to tow barges between Seattle and Alaska. Market challenges derailed the builds, and the unfinished hulls changed hands and shipyards several times before the tug that would become Foss Maritime Co.’s Corbin Foss was completed at Marine Power & Equipment Co., Seattle, in 2003.
Removed from operational duty and laid up in 2021, the tug is now being given another chance after being recently acquired by Dawn Services, which is in the process of restoring the vessel for reentry into service under full ABS class.
Notably, the 150'x40' tug packs a lot of power, which Dawn Services found attractive as it looks to expand its presence in the larger tug market.
The 16,000-hp class tug — renamed the Capt. John J. Charpentier in honor of Dawn Services’ founder — will be the company’s largest and most powerful tug, offering 108 tons of bollard pull. It is equipped with two Fairbanks Morse ALCO 16-251F diesel engines that turn twin 144"x127" 4-bladed, fixed-pitch propellers in Kort nozzles through a pair of Haley GMC 4228 reduction gears. It also features a pair of 170-kW Cummins N-14-TA generators and a 500-hp bowthruster.
“When it comes to tugs that have 100 tons of bollard pull or more, there’s not a huge market,” said Kevin Hopel, business development manager at Dawn Services. “We felt like we wanted to transition into the larger tug market. The last six tugs that we’ve added over the last five years have been 4,000 hp or more.”
As Dawn Services’ offerings have expanded, its fleet has grown too, increasing from eight tugs five years ago to 15 today. The fleet now includes three tugs with 2,200 hp or less and 12 tugs rated at 3,200 hp and above, including vessels with 4,000 hp, 4,100 hp, 5,800 hp and 8,200 hp. The company has been deploying its larger tugs to tow ships and to support offshore decommissioning work — “pretty much anything and everything,” said Hopel. “We’re hoping that in the future, as the oil field picks up, the bigger boats will get even busier.”
Topside refurbishment work on the Capt. John J. Charpentier has started at a dock rented by Dawn Services in Port Fourchon, La. The vessel will move to Bollinger Fourchon for more extensive repair work to be carried out in the coming months.
“The boat, steel-wise, is in great shape. Other than handrails and some smaller items on the deck that are being cut off and replaced, there’s nothing major. All the tanks look good. The engine room is in really good shape,” said Hopel. “The engines are probably going to be top-end rebuilds, turbo rebuilds, injectors, things like that. The boat runs.”
Most of the required refurbishment work will be focused on mechanical components, said Hopel. The tug’s Intercon DD 225 tow winch, for example, has some rust and will be totally broken down and rebuilt along with the winch engine. The tow pins are frozen and need to be restored.
“We’ll pull the shafts and wheels, we’ll have to go through the bowthruster, blast and paint the hull,” said Hopel. “But the boat is in really great shape.”
Hopel said he expects Capt. John J. Charpentier to be fully refurbished and “ready to go” by June
