Vane Brothers 3

I don’t know when the first Vane Brothers tug came through the sixth boro, but I posted fotos of the first ones on this blog in September 2007, when Patapsco participated in the Hudson river tug race, here and here.  Now some days, it seems that half the tugs in the sixth boro have the black V superimposed on the green ribbon.  Like the 3000 hp Sassafras, or

4200 hp Nanticoke, or

sibling Potomac all in the space of a

few hours on an otherwise quiet day.

Or take yesterday . . .  while two unidentified Vane units lay anchored over toward Red Hook, Patapsco strapped on DoubleSkin 55 and with

assistance from Charles D. McAllister, spun

the unit 180 degrees and headed over to the anchorage as well.

Click here for details on the Sassafras and Patapsco class fleets, and here for Vane Brothers ThomaSea building record.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Tomorrow I’ll share fotos of the shipping line that dominated the sixth boro on Monday afternoon.  Any guesses?

Unrelated:  For a recent Vancouver Sun article on the outlook for towing operators on the West coast, click here.

Below . . . bonus foto from 2007 tug race showing how much water Patapsco can push.