Why You Shouldn't Tug A Tug

I used to work on a cargo barge on the inside passage and thought we were pretty big until one day when we came around a corner and I was looking up at the bow of the Haida Warrior. That tug made us look like a row boat. Her sister ship is the Haida Chief.

I feel working on a tugboat might be more dangerous than it seems at first glance. Capsizing, lines snapping, bad weather...

That Voith drive is interesting... it's like they took the helicopter swash plate concept and applied it to aquatic propulsion.

It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to automate the quick-release system to trigger in critical situations.

Additionally. They make semi-truck pulling contests, tractor pulling contests, why do we not have tugboat pulling contests? Get 3-4 tugs who have to race pulling heavy barges across a 2 mile stretch of water!

I think that "Plan ahead" part should be the takeaway for those who care but don't want to make a hobby of it.

The release button problem reminds me of something that happened to my partner. She had a data center fire -- power shorted out through a data line and caused a modem to explode and catch fire. Just inside the machine room door, there's a Big Red Switch that cuts all power to the entire room, for just such an emergency. She ran into the room, saw the fire, and hit the Big Red Switch. Unfortunately, the contractors who'd built the room never actually hooked the Big Red Switch up to anything, absolutely nothing happened. She had to spend the next 15 minutes in a smoke-filled room shutting down all the server racks one by one.

I am a Tug Engineer in Australia, and I have often thought about this issue but struggled to get straight answers. This video is amazing and explains it perfectly. Thank you.

Fun Fact: On old conventional harbor tugs, I know of, the length of Gog-line was adjusted by a seperate winch. Therefore at slow speeds the tug could use its full turning ability, while at moderate speed the Gog line could be tightened which made it possible to be towed behind the ship safely. Conventional tugs otherwise really dont like to be towed astern, as mentioned in the video.

If there's anything I've learned from watching your videos, it's that the marine industry employs a lot of physics every day to run safety and efficiently. I assume most captains, for example, don't need to know all the explicit physics like you show in these videos, but the fact that they do clearly have a general understanding of it, and shipbuilders clearly need to have a pretty in-depth understanding of the forces at play, is something I had never really though of before. I used to think "make boat a boat shape and slap engine in to make boat go".

On my home river, the River Clyde, there's been several tugs lost when towing after capsizing. The primary reason for the loss of the vessels was that they weren't watertight at the point of capsize. Crews were lost because they didn't follow the rules. A very interesting explanation of the forces at work.

I work on a towboat and can confirm nothing good happens when a boat is held pinned or drug sideways through water or in current. Generally if you find yourself there alot of stuff has gone wrong and closed sealed water tight doors are about all that is going to save you, and it is still going to be a wild ride.

1:29 That is the coolest thruster design I’ve ever seen and it’s so simple. I love it and I wonder how nobody ever thought of it before. Absolute genius.

Dangerous work. You always want to hire a pro for your tug jobs.

The quality of the content and the animations of this channel never cease to amaze me. Thank you so much!

I'm a landlubber who always learns a lot from your episodes - thanks. Sounds like ALL tugs should be mandated to have a Quick Release system and a 'Standard' is required for documentation and signage.

SO INTERESTING! I've wondered about this for years. Thank you for posting!

A few years ago I was rowing up the Tyne river and we watched a tug going astern all the way past us and carried on out of sight. I don't remember much details about the tug but I'd assume it's probably still at work now. I found it amusing that they didn't bother turning round

Tugging too hard is definitely dangerous for many reasons!

Awesome! So many of your videos taught me things I never even realized I'd want to know. Great stuff!