2013 Tug Racing Season

The season comes to the east coast in late summer.  New York’s 2013 sixth boro race is 12 days away, but you can get tickets to watch it from a boat already by clicking here.  Be patient  . . . it may load slowly.

This is NOT a foto from NYC.  Can you guess where you’d see this original OSV design?  OSV here means “offshore (lobster) supplying vessel,”  which I confess are my first love in workboat design, dating from back when I lived in New Hampshire.  All fotos in this post come thanks to Birk Thomas, a force behind this site and its Facebook version, which generates a lot of pics  of workboats from all over.

If you guessed Portland, Maine . . . this is the pre-race lineup for the MS Harborfest.

I’m pretty sure this foto was taken from Andrew McAllister.

And it’s push-off time.

So in New York on September 1, whether you ride the boat or watch from the pier . . . I hope to see you there.

Although the September 1 race in NYC is the 21st annual in the current series, the races date back to before I was born.  See fotos of the vessels from the 1952 race here.  Back then, an international lifeboat race–rowers came from whatever cargo ships were in port at that time–was part of the festivities.

Again, many thanks to Birk Thomas for these fotos.  And if you do Facebook, check out tugboatinformation there.

Stacks 2

Unrelated first:  trimaran Zamna . ..  was identified by Soundbounder‘s Matt Housekeeper, foto’d by Bowsprite’s magic lens in September, and posted on asleep-at-switch tugster twice… most recently two days ago here (scroll to the end).    Here’s Zamna’s own site.  Is anyone who took fotos of it close-up at Chelsea Piers willing to share them here?  . . . apparently it’s currently sailing to Greece.   I’m especially curious about the figurehead.   Now back to stacks.

It appears a “stacks” series could go on a long time, but within a given fleet, stacks differ in shape, number, and relative size.  These fotos go back two or three years, so I don’t know whether all these boats still carry the red-and-white rings.  One is a trick:  it does NOT carry the McAllister name although it may belong to a subsidiary fleet.  Clues exist in the fotos, so I won’t give the names until the end.  See how many you can guess.  Remember, double clicking enlarges.

Single stack, squat but rounded and trapezoidal.  A single large tube protrudes.

Single and tall, like a stoogie.

Two of them, squat but rectangular and again trapezoidal.  One wider and two thinner protruding tubes in each.

Single oval cylinder rising just slightly above the top of house, with two protruding pipes.

Quite similar to the previous.

Really high single with no tapering at all.  Has guy-wires.

Ditto the first foto:  Single stack, squat, rounded and trapezoidal.  But two large tubes protrude.

Like the previous but flanked by ladders.

Paired but really squat relative to the house.

Paired and flanking a companionway.  One large pipe protrudes quite far from each.

Paired with a dividing companionway, flanked by ladders, and more acute angle in the protruding tubes.

From the top,  the boats are:  Colleen 1967, Amy C 1975, Charles D 1967, Ellen 1966, Elizabeth 1967, Fournier Girls 1968, Helen 1900  [!!], Justine 1982, Marjorie B 1974, McAllister Girls 1968, Rosemary 2008, and Rowan 1981.

Charles D and Justine are both ex-Exxon boats:  Exxon Bayou State and Exxon Carquinez, respectively.  Elizabeth is ex-Fournier Boys and ex-J. A. Witte.  I’ve not seen Elizabeth in the sixth boro for quite a while.

And from yesterday’s post, why DOES Iona have only one “l” in its McAlister.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

NYC Tugboat Race 2007

Get set and go! Notice Riverside Church on heights in background.

Pictures have to speak here; I’m at a loss for words.

From farthest to nearest: Nathan Stewart, Lucy Reinauer, Patapsco, Dorothy Elizabeth, and Fournier Girls.

More throughout the week.

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.