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$4.2-Million Contract Awarded Century Marine For Tanker Repairs The Maritime Administration has awarded a $4,173,190 contract to Century Marine Co., 200 Pier Road, Orange, Texas, for repairs to the tanker Mount Vernon that will up- grade the vessel to Ready Reserve Force (RRF) status. The contract covers upgrading of Fishermen's Boat Shop Inc. at Ever- ett, Wash. The 40-ton, blunt-bowed vessel, which has a top speed of about 8.5 knots, was equipped with Cummins 6B Series diesels because these engines have horsepower ratings that fit well with the rpm require- ments of the pump jets and fire pump, reported Paul Zankich, Co- lumbia Sentinel's principal naval architect. "We looked at several manufac- turers to see what they had available in that horsepower range," he said. "We wanted preferably an Ameri- can-made engine with good availa- bility of parts and service. That par- ticular (Cummins 6B Series) engine satisfied all of those conditions." Among the multipurpose vessel's bridge maintenance duties will be assisting with adjusting anchor ca- bles, flushing bridge drains, main- taining navigation lights and doing other maintenance as needed. The vessel is equipped with a six-ton- capacity, knuckle-boom hydaulic crane, pilothouse controls at sta- tions both fore and aft inside the pilothouse and quick-disconnect connections for portable hydraulic and pneumatic tools. For more information and free lit- erature on Cummins engines, Circle 86 on Reader Service Card the vessel to meet regulatory inspec- tions and certification including hull, machinery, electrical, naviga- tion-communication equipment, and general topside repairs. Cummins-Powered Tender Serves Washington State's New Floating Bridge M^l, The unusual shape of the bridge tender— with a tall house forward and extremely low work deck aft—was required because of the floating bridge's structural design and height. When the world's largest vehicu- lar floating bridge was completed recently at Seattle, a newly built, Cummins-powered vessel—Drift- wood II—was on hand to begin serv- ing as the concrete structure's ten- der. Performing bridge maintenance, backup firefighting and environ- mental cleanup chores is a 46-foot, specially designed steel vessel pow- ered by a pair of Cummins 6BT5.9- M marine diesels, each rated at 180 horsepower at 2,500 rpm. Each in- line engine powers a 360-degree- rotatable Schottel SPJ-55 pump-jet thruster mounted below the pilo- thouse. In addition to the main engines, the Driftwood II is equipped with a Cummins 6B25.9-M diesel, rated at 115 horsepower at 2,500 rpm, for powering a 750-gallon-per-minute fire pump. The main engines are turbocharged and the fire pump en- gine is naturally aspirated. The Driftwood II, owned and op- erated by the State of Washington Department of Transportation, not only is tending the new Interstate 90 floating bridge across Lake Wash- ington but will be assigned to an older floating bridge that will reop- en to traffic in 1992 after receiving major refurbishing. The new bridge will be for westbound traffic and the refurbished structure will be for eastbound traffic. The two floating bridges are an- chored alongside each other be- tween Seattle and Mercer Island in Lake Washington. Washington State's new bridge tender was designed by Columbia Sentinel Engineers Inc., Seattle- based naval architectural and ma- rine engineering firm, and built by Circle 245 on Reader Service Card