Firms To Team For Electric Truckable Tug

Elliott Bay Design Group, Seattle, Wash., and Miller Marine Inc., Deltaville, Va., recently announced a partnership to design and construct a fully electric truckable tug.

The boat is designed as a multi-functional utility boat capable of tending dredges or buoys, servicing marine construction sites, short-range ferry operations and other near-shore operations such as crew transportation or line handling.

Elliott Bay will incorporate an electrical propulsion system into Miller Marine’s truckable tug design. Once the design phase is complete, Miller will build the vessel at its 15,000-square-foot production facility.

The vessel has an overall length of just under 26 feet and will be powered by two permanent magnet motors with a total power of 300+ kW (400+ hp.). Shore power will be used to recharge the vessel’s battery banks overnight, taking no more than eight hours. On a full charge, the vessel will operate with contingency for more than 12 hours. A closed-loop fluid cooling system will provide temperature control of the batteries, motors and electronics, maximizing their lifetime.

This configuration is ideally suited for shallow and silty water operations, the joint announcement said.