New Foss hybrid tug steals the show in LA

摘要

The green and white tug Carolyn Dorothy slipped past the Foss Maritime office on Pier D in Long Beach, performed a graceful, smokeless pirouette and continued out into San Pedro Bay with no more sound than a well-paddled freight canoe.rnAt that time in March 2009, she was on her way out to one of her first ship-assist jobs. But, as the first hybrid tug in the world, this one could be forgiven a little showing off, especially when it was done so quietly.rnMost tugs cruising past the Foss head-rnquarters on Pier D would do so with both engines running at low rpm and a generator droning away as well, just to produce electricity. Carolyn Dorothy, to prove a point, did so under battery power alone - her main engines were shut down on standby, while the generator was running just to feed power into the batteries. Welcome to the world of hybrid propulsion.