Glacier Wind: A Pocket Tractor for Cook Inlet

Carl Anderson had a pair of virtually new V-12 Cummins KTA-38 engines with less than 300 hours on them and he needed a new docking tug. So he had the boat designed around the engines. His company, Cook Inlet Tug & Barge handles ships in Anchorage Alaska and escorts oil barges through ice-choked winter waters. Like his 3500-hp Stellar Wind, the new boat would have Ulstein Z-drives, with Nautican nozzles and wheels. Named the Glacier Wind, the boats KTA-38 main engines drive 72-inch props through Ulstein model 900H Z-drives. Like the bigger boat it will be equipped with a stainless steel Ulman-Johnson mine sweeper winch that can handle 1500 feet of 1 1/2 wire.

Because he liked the design and construction of the Stellar Wind, Carl went back to her builders, Seattle's Tri-Star Marine who also built an 1100 hp 50-foot push boat for him earlier this year. Carl and his brother Andy, who owns Anderson Tug & Barge, are the third generation of their family in the marine business on Cook Inlet.

The Port of Anchorage, at the head of the Inlet is one of the more challenging places to dock a deep sea ship on the Pacific coast. With up to 39 feet of tide and six months of winter ice up to four feet thick, boats have to be built rugged. "We designed the new boat around the engines," explains Carl, "The hull form is similar to the 85-foot Stellar Wind. The new boat is 65X26X10 feet and has real nice underwater lines."

Hull form is important in ship handling where the boat must be able to slide sideways down a ships hull as well as moving fore and aft. Docking container ships in Anchorage presents boats and their operators with some unique challenges. "We try to dock the big 750-foot Sealand ships on the flood tide," Carl explains, "We put one tug nose-in to the pier on the upstream side of the dock face. Running full ahead, this boat blows the floating pans of ice clear of the dock so that the ship can put her nose into the open water by the pier with a line down from her bows. The second tug then works on her stern quarter to bring her flush with the face of the dock so that there is no ice between her hull and the dock. That way the container cranes can line up properly."

The Glacier Wind will also be required to travel out ahead of towed fuel barges to break ice. To handle all of this, the hull has been ice strengthened to an Ice Class C rating. "By the end of the season," the hulls on our boats look like they've been sand blasted down to bare metal," says Carl.

The wheelhouse has great visibility all round and is designed to accommodate the Ulstein Combi-lever controls. As with most tugs designed for an owner operator, the Glacier Wind features a number of quality details. From the Francis spot light that Carl says, "Doesn't leak down the shaft" to the full suite of electronics supplied by Aleyaska Radar in Anchorage, a lap top computer with a set of Cap'n Nautical electronic charts and a special northern feature, the hot water heated foredeck "so the guys don't have to sliding around on ice when they're working a ship's lines," says this discerning vessel owner.

At 65-feet in length with a 26-foot beam the Glacier Wind, with her two KTA-38 main engines rated 1040 hp each at 1900 RPM, is smaller than most Z-drives built recently in North America. She is expected to attract widespread attention from towing firms looking for versatile "pocket" tractors to work in smaller ports.

For Further Information Contact:

Carl Anderson
Phone: (907) 277-7611
President Fax: (907) 272-3410

Cook Inlet Tug & Barge Co., Inc.
824 Delaney
Anchorage, Alaska 99501

Ralph Hansen Phone: (206) 783-1467

Tri-Star Marine Fax: (206) 782-8434
2629 N.W.54th St.
Seattle, Washington 98107

Geoff Conrad Phone: 803 745 1585

Commercial Marine Sales Manager Fax: 803 745 1549
4500 Leeds Ave. Suite 301
Charleston , S.C. 29405-8521

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