Bourg Dry Dock, Houma, La., recently delivered two 95’×34’×10’6″ inland towboats and a barge to its parent company, Lebeouf Bros. Towing, also of Houma.

The Karl Senner and the Dickie Gonsoulin are built of ABS grade-A steel and were designed by Houma-based Entech & Associates. Both towboats have a maximum draft of 9′.

The Dickie Gonsoulin has twin Caterpillar 3512C Tier 3 diesels, producing 1,400 hp at 1,600 rpm. The Cats connect to two Hung Shen 84″×64.82″, 5-bladed stainless-steel propellers through Reintjes WAF665 marine gears with 5.959:1 reduction ratios. The propulsion package pushes the new towboat through the water at 6 knots.

“Frank Basile (of Entech & Associates) is a great architect and a good friend,” said Jon Gonsoulin, one of the owners of Lebeouf and Bourg Dry Dock. “I just explained to Frank what I wanted and what I wanted the boats to be able to do, and he gave me a great boat design.”

Ship’s service power is provided by two Cummins 6BTA 5.9 engines, generating 85 kW each.

Main propulsion for the Karl Senner comes from a pair of Mitsubishi S12R-Y2-MPTX engines, producing 1,300 hp at 1,600 rpm. The diesels connect to two 80″x65″ Kahlenberg 5-bladed, stainless-steel wheels through Reintjes WAF665, vertical offset marine gear with 5.950:1 reduction ratios. It, too, has a running speed of 6 knots.

Twin 6.8-liter John Deere 6068T FM 76s power the 60-cycle gensets, providing 99 kW of electrical power each.

Gonsoulin said there was no particular reason for putting Mitsubishi engines in one boat and Cats in the other. “Well, we had some Mitsubishis here, then the guy from Cat wanted us to use his engines, so we decided to try it out,” he said. “There was no real rhyme or reason for it.”

Both towboats use Eaton 25V14A1A22R steering/control systems and have electronics suites that include Koden MDC 2260 ATS radar, Icon 504 radios and Furuno GPS. Tankage capacities include 37,006 gals. of fuel, 22,472 gals. water, 670 gals. lube oil, and 670 gals. gear oil. The new vessels have crew/passenger accommodations for seven.

The Dickie Gonsoulin carries a U.S. regulatory tonnage certificate and the Karl Senner also has a U.S. regulatory certificate and an international tonnage certificate.

Both towboats were christened at a ceremony on Sept. 14 in Houma. The Karl Senner is named after Karl H. Senner, founder of Karl Senner LLC. The company supplied the Reintjes gears on both boats. The Dickie Gonsoulin is named after Jon Gonsoulin’s father.

The two 95-footers are the second and third to be built to this design for Lebeouf. The first was the Teddy Meyer, and there are two more underway at Bourg Dry Dock.

The new barge, Gonsoulin 536, which was christened along with the two towboats, is a 30,000-bbl. tank barge.

“There’s more plate and more iron in those barges than the normal tank barge,” he said. “We’re going to build more of them.”