We like to keep an eye on our clients…and on our clients’ clients as well.
Here’s something that we found interesting related to one of VT Halter’s recent launches (but we had to read through a bunch of details for it to jump out at us). On February 11, 2014, SSI’s client VT Halter Marine of Mississippi launched the articulated tug barge (ATB) tug named “Denise A. Bouchard”.
It was built at Halter’s Moss Port Marine facility in Escatawpa and ShipConstructor software was used for the detail design. The ATB is for Bouchard Transportation’s fleet service in New York, NY, where it will be paired with Barge B. No.284. The tug is 112 ft. by 35 feet by 17 feet. It’s an ocean-going 4000 HP tug that is classed by ABS as an A1 towing vessel. It is dual mode, and has an Intercon Coupler system. Also under construction at V.T. Halter are the M/V Kim M. Bouchard and the M/V Donna J. Bouchard. And finally, a press release from VT Halter notes that the new tug, Denise A. Bouchard, is a sister vessel to another Bouchard Transportation ATB, named, Evening Star.
Evening Star?
It’s interesting to learn that there’s a Bouchard vessel not named after a member of the Bouchard family. We should have noticed this back in 2012 because that’s when Evening Star was launched (also by VT Halter.)
Looking at the Bouchard website shows that almost every one of their 20+ tugs is named after a relative. There’s even a 6140 HP tug named, “Bouchard Girls” (once again, built by VT Halter). But back in 1995, VT Halter built Bouchard an ocean towing vessel called the J. George Betz and back in the 1970s there were a couple called Evening Mist and Evening Tide so Evening Star was a throwback to the company’s earliest naming conventions.
But the trend didn’t last.
With the Denise A. Bouchard, and the upcoming Kim M. Bouchard and the Donna J. Bouchard, it looks like Bouchard is once again trying to keep the vessel names….all in the family.