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Author Topic: Smitt Nederland and towing  (Read 8598 times)

pdryden

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Re: Smitt Nederland and towing
« Reply #25 on: May 24, 2011, 08:48:27 pm »

Cragsider and Hendon were designed with a 20 second delay
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meechingman

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Re: Smitt Nederland and towing
« Reply #26 on: May 24, 2011, 11:16:19 pm »

Just looking at some pix over on Ships Nostalgia. Manchester Ship Canal movements, all with the stern tugs towing from the bow. Interesting to see how different companies/ports/skippers seem to work.

Mind you, at Newhaven we usually dispensed with the stern tug completely. We towed them in or out sternfirst as required, using one or both anchors plus the ship's engine as brakes. As we've said - anticipation and experience is the name of the game - aided by a tug that responds swiftly!
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Admiral of the Haven Towage Fleet.

Geoff Cropper

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Re: Smitt Nederland and towing
« Reply #27 on: May 25, 2011, 07:26:13 pm »

When I worked in the Persian Gulf in Qatar in the 70's, the company had a small tug we used as a dive boat around the rigs.       It had a 5 cylinder Crossley diesel engine, no gearbox, a direct drive from engine to prop.        When we wanted to go astern, the engine had to be stopped, the engineer had to wind the overhead camshaft across the cyl. heads to connect up with another set of valves on the other side and then start the engine in reverse using a compressed air starter motor.         Then to go ahead the whole performance in reverse order was gone through again, and it all took time.             Anything more than 4 or 5 evolutions and the air reservoir was empty so couldn't start up until the small compressor had refilled the reservoir again.           Needless to say, the bow and stern areas were well and truly dented to the extent that the port anchor refused to run out at all.          I think it was bent in the hawse pipe.         When coming alongside the dock wall, we lassooed a bollard and used the after winch to stop the boat and pull us into the wall to moor up for the night.           You're right about antisipating the next move, but ours was in hours rather than minutes.         I lost count of the number of foul props we used to get.       Kept the divers in full time employment though.      Years later, I met a chap I used to work with.        He said they did some underwater demolition work and used to light the fuse on deck then drop it over the side then steam away to a safe distance and await the big bang.        Unfortunately, they got a foul prop with the fuse as they steamed away which winched the dynamite charge up to the prop.        The prop was cut off clean as a whistle and the rudder bent flat to the hull.          It wasn't long after that she went for scrap.       I got quite attached to the old girl, she did the best she could.       Happy towing,    Geoff.
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farrow

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Re: Smitt Nederland and towing
« Reply #28 on: May 26, 2011, 01:01:50 pm »

In my experience the only tug which could go from full ahead to full astern was a steam tug, it put alot of strain on the shaft etc. Diesel screw tugs always have to wait for the revs to die down before the gearbox would react to the command then there was a delay of minimal 15 secs, as the shaft had to be braked before changing direction or else the gearbox would go off like a hand grenade. As Shipmate said the competion tugs are not to scale or realistic to the tugs they are modelled on. Also push/pull with screw tugs is quite a common practice in the real world, common in the MoD (note the buckled plates on MoD vessels on their shoulders and quarters, also when moving a vessel in confined waters a tug is secured bow to stern on the stern of dead ships to act as a rudder as well as assisting in stopping it.
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tugmad

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Re: Smitt Nederland and towing
« Reply #29 on: May 26, 2011, 03:46:38 pm »

Cragsider and Hendon were designed with a 20 second delay


Yea that caused a bit of premature greying  of the hair when the hendon came to the Thames
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