Horizon delivers retractable pilot house towboat to FMT

Marty Cullinan with pilot house extended

JULY 31, 2016 – Horizon Shipbuilding, Inc., Bayou La Batre AL, recently delivered the M/V Marty Cullinan, a 120 ft towboat with a retractable pilot house, to its home port of New Orleans, LA.

The towboat is Horizon’s latest delivery of many to Florida Marine Transporters and is one of the first vessels to fully benefit from Horizon’s GORDHEAD management software.

The GORDHEAD management software gained Horizon the 2016 Alabama Innovator of the Year Award for Manufacturing. It has reduced production manhours and shortened delivery schedules, enabling the shipyard to become more competitive and gain an increasing backlog in a very challenging shipbuilding market. Both of two new customers, McAllister Towing and Transportation Company, Inc. and Hornblower New York Ferry Fleet, LLC, mentioned GORDHEAD as a contributing factor in their selection process.

The M/V Marty Cullinan has an ABS Load Line Certificate to operate in the waters between Chicago to Burns Harbor for fair weather voyages.

It measures 120′-0″ LOA x 35’0″ x 11′-6″ and weighs in at 387 gross tons.

The towboat is outfitted for service in areas with restricted overhead clearances and draft limitations. With the pilot house fully retracted, the maximum air draft is 17 ft  8 in.

The vessel is of all steel construction and powered by two CAT 3512 engines rated at 2,011 hp each at 1,600 RPM with Twin Disc gears. The boat is outfitted with two 175 kV Tier 3 John Deer 6090 460 V gensets.

Sleeping accommodations and facilities are provided for eight persons and sound dampening systems have been implemented throughout the main deck house.

The Project Manager for the build of the M/V Marty Cullinan, Terry Freeman, managed the construction of the vessel.

He and his team completed the build on schedule for FMT. Construction began in April 2015 and the towboat was completed and delivered in June 2016.

“Our team exceeded all expectations with regard to the timely production and quality work on this build especially given the new design, ABS requirements and technical expertise required for the retractable pilot house,” said Freeman.

Jeff Brumfield, Sr. Manager of Boat Construction and Engineering for FMT said, “We are thoroughly pleased with the boat, and when I talk to the Marty Cullinan crew they are quick to note that she is smooth and very quiet. The sound dampening package has exceeded our expectations.”

“We have worked hard to build one of the best boats on the river and we consider ourselves fortunate to have teamed with FMT and John J. Gilbert to do this,” said Travis Short, President of Horizon Shipbuilding. “Horizon has been building FMT boats for almost a decade and in that time we have been able to assemble a team of master craftsmen that produce a superior product. All the praise goes to those men and women in the yard, taking care to do the job right the first time while working safe, working hard and working together.”

Horizon has two more 120 ft FMT towboats, one standard and the other with a retractable pilothouse, in productionwith deliveries scheduled for fall 2016 and spring 2017, respectively. The deliveries of these vessels will bring the total number of FMT deliveries by Horizon to 20.

Marty Cullinan with pilot house retracted