35 May 20,1998

Classic Basile Designed Tugs for Scotty Chabert

Port Captain Wade Bruce reports that Scotty Chabert's new 84X27X11.6-foot tugs will feature forward house and towing winches. Designed by naval architect Frank Basile of Houma Louisiana, they are being built at R&S Fabricators in Lockport. Powered by a pair of KTA38M2 engines rated at 1200-hp driving at 1800 rpm prop through Twin Disc model MG5301 gears with a 6:1 reduction the tugs will be involved in rig towing and anchor handling.

Frank Basile has a long history in workboat design, a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, he began his career with Avondale Shipyard in 1947. The Chabert tug design has its origins in a pair of 80X25 foot boats designed by Frank Basile in the 1970s for Allied Towing out of Norfolk. Since then he has designed an 84X25-foot version and in 1980 he designed and built at his Modern Mariner Power Inc. yard, an 84X27-foot version for St. Phillips Towing. He then built two more of the popular tugs for a paper company in Chesapeake Bay. When Scotty Chabert came looking for a tug of that general size, Basile brought out the original pre CAD drawings and input the numbers to his computer. A scan won't work he says so the actual design work has to be put into the CAD program. Some modifications were required to meet regulatory changes over the years, but the tug had been well designed to do its job in the first place and the new boat will have the same general appearance.

But, says Basile, marine engines have come a long way since the early 1980s. The Cummins KTA38-M2 engines going in this 2400-hp boat are about 20% lighter for their horsepower than the engines that he was putting in the original boats of this design. This allows for increased tankage and more fuel. At the same time the modern engine gains another 20% in fuel efficiency. This means that with the 50,000 gallons of fuel that this boat can carry it will be suitable for towing to any of the Caribbean Islands although its intended work will be in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch. The engines will turn 79-inch propellers in 80-inch kort nozzles.

Sea Trials and delivery of the first of these two tugs are scheduled for July with a second to follow.

Winches will be hydraulicly powered with hydraulic power based on a Cummins 6B5.9 series engine delivering 85 hp at 1800 RPM.

For further information and general arrangement drawings contact:

Frank J. Basile, P.E.
Entech & Associates, Inc.
P.O.Box 1470
Houma, Louisiana 70361 U.S.A.
Phone: (504) 868-5524 Fax: (504) 857-9032

Richard Adams
R&S Fabrication
Lockport, LA
Phone: (504) 532-5868 Fax: (504) 532-6508

Joe Gregory
Cummins Mid-South Inc.
110 E. Airline Highway
Kenner, LA 70062
Phone: (504) 468-3535

Wade Bruce
Chabert Marine, Inc.
16210 West Main St.
Cut Off, LA70345
Phone: (504) 632-7791 Fax: (504) 632-2877

500-476, 475-451, 450-426, 425-401, 400-376
375-351, 375-351, 350-326, 325-301, 300-276, 275-251, 250-226, 225-201
200-176, 175-151, 150-126, 125-101, 100-76, 75-51, 50-26, 25-0