Tug tech will be on prime display during 'world's largest tugboat race'

ABOARD THE WEDELL FOSS -- Capt. Wayne Sharp looked across Commencement Bay Thursday, explaining the finer points of tugboat maneuvering while waiting for an afternoon rendezvous with an Alaskan container ship.

Told by radio that the ship would be an hour late, the Wedell (rhymes with "needle") Foss crew watched as a sister ship, the Henry Foss, executed moves during a training session. Like a playful dolphin, the Henry Foss turned in rapid circles, its powerful propellers churning the bay's green water into sunlit foam. Its wheel-water swirled into eddies as the tug skimmed sideways -- at a brisk five knots.

		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Deckhand Rob Arnett on the Wedell Foss tugboat grabs a line from a large container ship in Commencement Bay in Tacoma on Thursday.

"Show-off," harrumphed Wedell Foss mate Doug Bezona.

His older brother Bob, captain of the Henry Foss, was training a Los Angeles captain, who eventually will take the wheel of the Brynn Foss, currently in Ballard being refitted with an upgraded propulsion system.

When it rejoins its previously refitted, more powerful siblings, not only will the Brynn Foss be more maneuverable, but its ability to pull heavier vessels, or bollard pull, will increase along with its horsepower -- from 3,000 to 5,000. All three tugs were built in 1982.

When matriarch Thea Foss, a Norwegian immigrant, launched the family business in 1889 by selling a rowboat, she could not have foreseen the growth in the Northwest tugboat industry, let alone the new technology, expanded ports and increasingly immense container ships.

And while the public can see tugs at work nearly every day, tugboat tech will be on prime display Saturday during tugboat races on Elliott Bay -- as part of Seattle's Maritime Week.

"The older version of these tugs could always thrust in any direction, but now they can spin like a top and go sideways faster, which helps push boats or stabilize them," said Sharp, a 21-year tug veteran.

These are not your great-grandmother's tugs.

Foss Maritime Co. and competitor Crowley Maritime, as well as Seattle-based Olympic Tug and Barge, have been growing for years.

Tugboats are becoming safer, with global positioning, chart and gauge systems, and tougher licensing requirements for crews. They also are becoming smaller and more powerful and are capable of towing hefty aircraft carriers, submarines, barges, cruise ships and container vessels into port, then docking them -- even in tight spaces.

Whether vessels are carrying people, cars, oil, seafood or other commodities, tugs are the necessary guides in any port.

"The size of ships (that) tugs must work with has almost doubled since I've been in the business," said Bryan Morris, chief engineer on the Wedell Foss.

He's also seen increased fuel efficiencies, computerization and horsepower in his 18 years working on tugs.

Mike Skalley of Seattle, Foss' Pacific Northwest customer service manager and company historian, has seen the changes first-hand. He grew up watching tugs on Elliott Bay from his beachfront home in Magnolia, enthralled by sea stories told by his father, a maritime and timber industry executive. He watched tugs tow log and gravel barges and help in bulkhead repair.

"I just never lost interest in them," said Skalley, who first began as a tug dispatcher at age 18 and has researched Foss tugs' changes from steam- to diesel-powered.

The steam-powered Arthur Foss, named after Thea Foss' husband and launched in 1889, remains the only known wood-hulled 19th century tugboat still afloat. The Arthur Foss, now owned by the non-profit Northwest Seaport and moored at the historic ships wharf at South Lake Union, is a national historic landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

Yet another generation of tugboats is on the way.

In March, the Tacoma-based Foss announced it plans to build an "eco-tug." Dubbed "the world's first true (electric-diesel) hybrid tugboat," the boat is expected to have fewer emissions of harmful nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon. It also will use less fuel and be quieter, the company says.

Wedell Foss deckhand Rob Arnett notes, however, that with all the high-tech improvements, tugs also retain remnants of the past.

From inside the tug's wheelhouse, with a sleek, teak interior and 360-degree views, crew members said Thursday that some things have not changed -- like splicing lines, and using carbon paper in the hand-written ship's logbook and a hand-cranked pencil sharpener.

"There is a lot of tradition and old technology to tugboats -- things that are hard to improve on," Arnett said.

FOR MORE INFO

The "world's largest tugboat race," featuring more than 40 tugboats, is planned for Saturday on Elliott Bay. For more information about Seattle Maritime Week, visit seattlepropellerclub.org.