Great Lakes Ship­yard, a divi­sion of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, Cleve­land, Ohio, cel­e­brat­ed the sign­ing of a con­struc­tion con­tract to build anoth­er of its Handy­Size Class, 3,400 HP twin-screw tug­boat for har­bor tow­ing oper­a­tions in Puer­to Quet­zal; a grow­ing prin­ci­pal com­mer­cial car­go, con­tain­er, and cruise port locat­ed on the Pacif­ic coast of Guatemala in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca. The buy­er, Reg­i­men de Pen­siones y Jubi­la­ciones del Per­son­al de la Empre­sa Por­tu­ar­ia, is a Pen­sion Ben­e­fits Plan for Port employ­ees and retirees who oper­ate a com­mer­cial tug­boat ser­vice in the port under a Port Author­i­ty fran­chise for the pur­pose of ensur­ing future retire­ment benefits.

The Handy­Size class tug to be built for Reg­i­men de Pen­siones y Jubi­la­ciones del Per­son­al de la Empre­sa Por­tu­ar­ia, Puer­to Quetzal

The Handy­Size Class tug was designed by Jensen Naval Archi­tects & Marine Engi­neers, Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton. The new tug will be built by Great Lakes Ship­yard with deliv­ery next year. It is specif­i­cal­ly designed for har­bor work and coastal tow­ing. It is 74-feet long with a beam of 30 feet, and a design draft of 11.5 feet. It is to be built to Amer­i­can Bureau of Ship­ping (ABS) stan­dards and its Cum­mins QSK-50 main diesel propul­sion engines, each rat­ed at 1700 BHP@ 1600 rpm meet US EPA Tier III emis­sion reg­u­la­tions deliv­er­ing supe­ri­or fuel econ­o­my, dura­bil­i­ty, and reliability.

Evi­denc­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the sale and trade between both coun­tries, the Cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion was held in the US Embassy, Guatemala City, and host­ed by the Embassy’s Senior Trade Spe­cial­ist, Anto­nio Pri­eto of the Inter­na­tion­al Trade Admin­is­tra­tion, US Depart­ment of Com­merce. Pri­eto was instru­men­tal in facil­i­tat­ing the sale.

Nicole DeSil­vis, the Embassy’s Senior Com­mer­cial Offi­cer in her remarks, on behalf of the US Gov­ern­ment and US Ambas­sador Todd Robin­son, wel­comed the Pen­sion Plan’s offi­cers rep­re­sent­ed by Eduar­do De Jesus Lemus, the Regimen’s Pres­i­dente Jun­ta Admin­istrado­ra who signed the Con­tract, and Juan Rodol­fo Archi­la, the Regimen’s Admin­istrador Gen­er­al and the Board of Direc­tors acknowl­edg­ing their “work eth­ic” and the “clear and trans­par­ent man­ner” of the nego­ti­a­tions and the con­tract process. She pledged to con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate and assist in the Pen­sion Plan’s new endeavours.

At the Cer­e­mo­ny, Car­los Anto­nio Lain­fi­es­ta, Chair­man of the Board of Puer­to Quet­zal was pre­sent­ed with a plaque from the Reg­i­men in recog­ni­tion of his efforts in sup­port of the Regimen’s acqui­si­tion of the new tugboat.

The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company’s Chair­man, Ronald C. Ras­mus, and Gregg A. Thau­vette, Vice Pres­i­dent, Oper­a­tions and Mar­ket­ing, rep­re­sent­ed Great Lakes Ship­yard. Ras­mus signed the Con­tract on behalf of the Shipyard.