443 September 2007

LaForce At Full Force

The M/V Michele Gronsoulin alongside at the LaForce Shipyard in Bayou LaBatre.

There isn’t much space to spare in Bayou LaBatre’s LaForce Shipyard these days. Back-to-back orders are processed on a near assembly line schedule. A half dozen or more push boats in various stages of completion surround a single OSV. In early September a towboat was alongside the fitting out dock waiting paint and finishing details. At the end of the same pier a spanking new 74x28-foot boat with black hull, red house and green trim awaited her crew.

The tidy well equipped wheelhouse features joy sticks rather than the older style steering sticks.

On board, LaForce workers scrambled with the final touches while the owner’s representative, Mark Bourgeois, was busy checking the details in advance of leaving the yard. The boat’s crew would arrive from the LeBeouf Bros. Towing base at Bourg near Houma Louisiana to sail the boat back home for a proper naming ceremony.

One of the two Cummins KTA38-M engines with its Reintjes gear.

The MV Michele Gonsoulin is the fourth towboat to the same design that LeBeouf has taken from the LaForce yard (see Hotips#368). Like the earlier boats, MVs Merle Gonsoulin, Sydney Ann and Matherw James, the new boat is powered by a pair of Cummins KTA38 engines. These engines, rated at 850 hp each, are turning five-blade 74-inch props through Reintjes WAF464 gears with 5.905:1 ratios. As with her three sisters, the MV Michele Gonsoulin will work pushing oil barges on the inland waterways.

Ray LaForce and Jon Gronsoulin in the wheelhouse of one of the earlier boats.

For further information:

Ray LaForce
LaForce Shipyard, Inc.
P.O. Box 107, 650 Shell Belt Road
Bayou La Batre, Alabama 36509
Phone: 251 824 2152
Fax: 251 824 7742

Jon Gonsoulin
LeBoeuf Bros. Towing Co. Inc.
124 Drydock Rd.
Bourg, LA 70343
Phone 985 594 6691
Fax: 985 594 5253
E-Mail: jong@lebeouftowing.com

Joe Gregory
Territory Sales Manager
Cummins Mid-South
110 E.Airline Highway
Kenner, LA 70062
Phone: 504 468 3535
Moblie: 504 343 8369
Fax: 504 465 3408
Toll Free: 1 800 359 4830
Email: joe.gregory@cummins.com

All photos by Alan Haig-Brown.

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