Luc, Thanks for the link.
Robert Allan is one of Canada’s leading Consulting Naval Architect firms, founded in 1930.
Three generations of Roberts have led the company.
The PDF of your link was an outline of a presentation to a conference in British Columbia.
You can see that there are many interesting developments in Tugboats, and the Pacific Northwest—B.C., Washington, and Oregon—is one of the centers of activity.
Developments are driven by a number of factors:
Ships are getting bigger, requiring not only more powerful ship-assist tugs, but greater maneuverability to berth those monsters.
The offshore oil industry requires tugs to tow the platforms, handle any ground tackle, and supply them. This has led to the development of Anchor Handling Tugs like the French
Fairmount Sherpa and her sisters. These 200 tbp ships will soon be joined by a pair of 300 tbp AHTs ordered by Dreyfus. (tbp = Tons Bollard Pull)
Other big things such as oil refineries etc. are often fabricated in Asia and then towed half way around the world.
Another area that is serviced by Northwest firms is prevention and containment of oil spills.
The link has some nice pictures and gives some comparison of the various approaches to tug design.
I’ll look for more details and links.
As for vocabulary and idioms, ask me about specific things and I’ll try to answer without using yet more confusing idioms.
If they are embarrassing questions, such as “What are Port & Starboardâ€, you can PM me.
Marty
Try these links:
http://www.smit.com/ (http://www.smit.com/) Nice screensaver & wallpaper
http://www.svitzer.com/Towage/Towage+Services/ (http://www.svitzer.com/Towage/Towage+Services/) Danish firm that bought Wijsmuller
http://agency.adsteam.com.au/about_adsteam_agency.asp (http://agency.adsteam.com.au/about_adsteam_agency.asp) Aussie, oowned by Svitzer
http://www.foss.com/ The home team