Vane Brothers recently took delivery of the Cape Henry, a 3,000-hp, steel model bow tug, the 18th Maryland-built towing vessel to join the Baltimore-based company’s fleet.
Featuring a design by the late Frank Basile of Entech Designs LLC, Kenner, La., the 94'x32' Cape Henry has a hull depth of 13.3'. The vessel is outfitted with twin 1,500-hp Caterpillar 3512 main engines with conventional shafts, rudders and flanking rudders. The Cats turn a pair of Hung Shen four-bladed stainless-steel propellers through Twin Disc MGX5600 gears with 6:1 ratios. The propulsion system gives the tug a top speed of 12.5 knots.
For ship's service power, there's two John Deere 99kw generator drive engines.
The tug accommodates up to five crewmembers and features large, modern private and semiprivate quarters. On deck is a JonRie Series 500 hydraulic towing winch. There's tankage for 60,000 gals. fuel, and 3,000 gals. potable water.
Since 2008, 16 3,000-hp model bow tugs and two 3,000-hp pushboats have been delivered to Vane by Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corp., Salisbury, Md.
Chesapeake is building two more 3,000-hp pushboats for Vane scheduled for delivery in 2021.
“Vane Brothers remains committed to investing in thoughtfully crafted vessels that are highly efficient and reliable while also capitalizing on crew safety and comfort,” said Vane Brothers President C. Duff Hughes. “Just like her smartly built predecessors, the Cape Henry has been designed to deliver peak productivity when paired with the Vane fleet of coastwise tank barges.”
The Cape Henry is a true sister tug of the Cape Fear, which was delivered in October. Both model bow tugs primarily tow petroleum barges in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coastwise trade.
The Cape Henry is named for the promontory on the Atlantic shore of Virginia that is the southern boundary of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.
