Jensen Maritime Consultants, a Crowley Maritime Corporation company, recently began designing a new vessel, theEric M. McAllister, a 5,150 horsepower, twin Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugboat, for McAllister Towing. This vessel, which will be built by Senesco Marine LLC of North Kingstown, R.I., will be the tenth Jensen-designed and first Tier 3 tugboat in McAllister’s fleet.

The tug will be the third in a series of similar Jensen-designed McAllister tugboats, following the Andrew McAllister and Rosemary McAllister, both built in 2008, but will be operated in the New Bedford, Mass., area, where it will primarily perform ship escort work in Buzzards Bay, Mass. The Andrew McAllister is now operating out of Portland, Maine, and the Rosemary McAllister is currently under charter.

“We are pleased that the longstanding partnership we have with McAllister has given us the opportunity to design another environmentally responsible tugboat for use on the East Coast,” said Jensen’s Johan Sperling, vice president. “The state-of-the-art design developed is yet another example of Jensen’s full scope of industry-leading naval architecture and marine engineering capabilities.”

The design will not only give McAllister improved performance over the previous two designs, but also an environmentally friendly tug with lower emissions and reduced fuel consumption to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 3 marine emissions regulations. Tier 3 standards require a 50 percent reduction in particulate matter and a 20 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide.

At 96 feet in length and 34 feet in width, theEric M. McAllisterwill be powered by two, Caterpillar 3516CHD Tier 3 engines and two Schottel 1215 Z drives. The package will provide an estimated running speed of 12 knots and a bollard pull of 67 tons.

Additionally, the tug’s firefighting system will produce 11,967 gallons per minute through a pair of FFS 1200LB remotely controlled monitors. The water is delivered through a single FFS SFD 300-400 pump powered by a Caterpillar C32 engine. The monitors will have a 1,500 gallon tank, foam capability and a deluge system.

Towing machinery includes a JonRie 250 Escort winch with full render/recover on the bow and a JonRie 512 Tow winch with a spool capacity of 2,100 ft. of 2 ¼” wire on the stern.

The tugboat is expected to be delivered in mid-2013.