Gracie M. is the newest and fourth of this class of Reinauer boats. Can you name the other three?
I believe this is my first time to get photos of her light.
So the other three?
There’s Twins from 2011, Dean from 2013, and Dylan Cooper from 2015.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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March 13, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Daniel Meeter
I forget the technical name for those big hexagonal pins that slide out from the side of the tug into the barge, but they’re marvelous things. Though I’m wondering whether a big barge has much pitch and roll, and how that affects the tug’s push?
March 13, 2017 at 4:05 pm
Les Sonnenmark
GRACIE’s pins are 34-inch Intercon C-drive couplers with hex-tooth heads. The barge may have a lot of pitch and roll, depending on how heavily it’s loaded and what the sea state is; certainly the barge’s motions will be different from the tug’s, so the articulation system needs to compensate for that as well as possible. With the Intercon system, the two vessels roll and heave together but pitch idependently, so the tug’s roll motion is significantly damped by the barge–much more comfortable for the crew. Intercon has good information and a video on their website http://www.intercon.com/t-how-it-works.aspx