Lesson 13.
Pin units vs wire boats.
It's a never ending subject for those in the towing business.
To quickly get to the heart of the matter,
pin units are better for many reasons.
A "pin" unit is as the name suggests,
one unit.
The tug is "pinned" to the barge physically and they become one.
As is poorly pictured below,
the tug of a "pin unit" gets into the "notch" of the barge,
and huge hydraulic cylinders come out from the port and starboard sides of the bow of the tug
and fit into the corresponding holes in the notch of the barge.
When "made up" they become one unit.
The notch in the barge of a pin unit is much bigger and deeper,
allowing much more of the tug to slip up into the notch.
And now below,
is a picture of our antiquated wire boat.
If Daniel Boone was merchant mariner
he'd be on a boat like ours.
Ben Franklin probably had some sea time on a wire boat.
Actually, there are many many "wire boats" hauling product
of all kinds from port to port.
The "pin boats" are the wave of the future.
As I mentioned earlier
pin boats have many advantages.
Weather doesn't affect them as much and
they don't have to get on and off the wire
as they come in and out of ports,
which is time consuming and at time dangerous.
Pin boats are faster
getting from one port to another quicker
which means the owner delivers more product over time
which means the owner becomes richer.
They are faster because as they go through the water,
they are only pushing one bow through the water.
A wire boat is pushing the tug bow through the water
and
pulling the barge bow through the water.
Wire boats = much more resistance through the water.
So why doesn't our company just make our tug and barge a pin unit?
Money.
It costs millions to turn a wire boat into a pin unit.
And so,
that about wraps up todays lesson.
Stay tuned for lesson 14
when we discuss the merits of having Starbucks coffee
vs
Folgers.
4 comments:
OK, I am totally lost, but sounds like pinning would be a good thing.
Now onto coffee, how about some tea? You know Starbucks carries tea too.
I knew there were different ways of attaching bardges to boats, but I didn't realize they were different barges.
For the next lesson, I'm a folgers man. Every day, 365 days/year. If I'm supplementing my fix away from home, I'll look for Dunkin first. As to Starbucks, I thought I heard Alton Brown once say (about Starbucks) Why would you burn a perfectly good bean?
Well I've certainly learned something today. I can only hope this comes up on a trivia question or a crossword puzzle in my future.
Starbucks VS Folgers? I vote for good ole Maxwell house. ;)
I've always liked school… and you do very well, Teach. Thanks for the boat lesson…
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