3 ms·

If the thing that is towed is a conventional ship, it can use its own power in such conditions?

ehnto 9y ago
You wouldn't want to be in a conventional tug at all in open ocean conditions, regardless of the tow or no tow at all. You would need a new kind of tug, more resilient to waves and storms, with crew quarters, room for provisions and all of the life saving gear a normal open ocean ship has. You may as well build a new cargo ship.
- nherment 9y ago
  Not to say that the argument to have tugs pull barges offshore is sound, but high sea tugs exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille_Bourbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille_Bourbon
jessaustin 9y ago
So they didn't remove the propeller(s)? That's going to be a serious drag in a towing situation. And no, you can't just switch them on and off; they weigh many tons.
salawat 9y ago
The point is, the most dangerous points in the operation of a vessel are those when more than one vessel is in close proximity to another because it adds the extra problem of "we need to not hit the other guy" onto an already formidable stack of problems to be solved. This isn't like programming where a little complexity can be handled at a trivial cost. Even if the tugs were say, AI controlled, so that endangering other sailors wasn't an immediate concern, these tugs would still be potential sources of catastrophic damage when fighting inclimate seas due to the size and materials they would have to be made from to actually make any significant difference in getting a fully laden cargo ship from A to B. Tugs are justifiable on inland waters or near ports because they are generally there to replace the ship they are towing's need or means to manoeuvre, enabling smaller, tighter movements than the ship is capable of under its own power. It also enables a transfer of control from a helmsman who may not know the particulars of a port or waterway at that time, to that of a local who's only job is juggling ships in that port day in and day out. Think of tugs as Valets. You don't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with one on the open sea, and it is guaranteed one you bring along with you won't know anything useful about where you are going. Best to just let the destination worry about it. The best approach would be to develop a system that could be relatively quickly integrated into current hulls during a quick refit, or to start designing new hulls with the system from the get go. The physical world doesn't take kindly to hack jobs. Disclaimer: not a sailor, just fascinated by logistics. If I have made any undue assumptions, please feel free to correct me.

You wouldn't want to be in a conventional tug at all in open ocean conditions, regardless of the tow or no tow at all. You would need a new kind of tug, more resilient to waves and storms, with crew quarters, room for provisions and all of the life saving gear a normal open ocean ship has. You may as well build a new cargo ship.

nherment 9y ago
Not to say that the argument to have tugs pull barges offshore is sound, but high sea tugs exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille_Bourbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille_Bourbon

jessaustin 9y ago

So they didn't remove the propeller(s)? That's going to be a serious drag in a towing situation. And no, you can't just switch them on and off; they weigh many tons.

salawat 9y ago

The point is, the most dangerous points in the operation of a vessel are those when more than one vessel is in close proximity to another because it adds the extra problem of "we need to not hit the other guy" onto an already formidable stack of problems to be solved. This isn't like programming where a little complexity can be handled at a trivial cost. Even if the tugs were say, AI controlled, so that endangering other sailors wasn't an immediate concern, these tugs would still be potential sources of catastrophic damage when fighting inclimate seas due to the size and materials they would have to be made from to actually make any significant difference in getting a fully laden cargo ship from A to B. Tugs are justifiable on inland waters or near ports because they are generally there to replace the ship they are towing's need or means to manoeuvre, enabling smaller, tighter movements than the ship is capable of under its own power. It also enables a transfer of control from a helmsman who may not know the particulars of a port or waterway at that time, to that of a local who's only job is juggling ships in that port day in and day out. Think of tugs as Valets. You don't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with one on the open sea, and it is guaranteed one you bring along with you won't know anything useful about where you are going. Best to just let the destination worry about it. The best approach would be to develop a system that could be relatively quickly integrated into current hulls during a quick refit, or to start designing new hulls with the system from the get go. The physical world doesn't take kindly to hack jobs. Disclaimer: not a sailor, just fascinated by logistics. If I have made any undue assumptions, please feel free to correct me.