JonRie Escort Winches Ordered for Two McAllister Tugs
McAllister Towing recently placed an order for series 240 JonRie Escort Winches to be installed aboard the tugs Vicki M. McAllister and Janet M. McAllister. The company is undertaking modifications of both tugs, and replacement of the hydraulic winches aboard was seen as the wisest decision.
“Brandon has done well with everything he’s undertaken,” said Martin “Marty” Costa, veteran engineering manager at McAllister Towing, a reference to Brandon Durar, president of JonRie Division at Markey Machine in Seattle. “The entire fleet had been outfitted with JonRie not so long ago. JonRie winches are familiar, readily operable, and easy to troubleshoot as well,” he added.
Durar also recalls his McAllister winch business fondly. “In the early 2000s, we outfitted McAllister’s Navy YTB tugs with hawser winches. After these three conversions, we provided all the hawser winches for McAllister’s new tug-build program down at Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City, Fla.”
“Later, we went back to outfitting McAllister’s YTB conversion program but now the conversions were for twin-engine 4,000HP ASD tugs, installing our 230 series hawser winches on the bow. McAllister also converted two YTBs for the US Navy in Tacoma, Wash., an effort headed up by Marty Costa. These tugs the YT-800 (Manhattan) and YT-801 (Washtucan) are still in service up in Bremerton, Wash.”
Since that time, JonRie winches have appeared on a number of other McAllister tugs, both new and old.
The JonRie Series 240 Escort Winch develops 15 tons of bare-drum line pull at 75 feet/min. line speed, with speed increasing to 150 ft/min. at mid-drum. The model accommodates 600 feet of 8.5” circumference synthetic line. Brake-holding capacity is a robust 300 tons bare-drum. Supplied with the winch is a skid-mounted HPU with a 60HP/460VAC electric motor. The HPU includes a counterbalance valve to prevent motor overspeeding; the unit has both a foot pedal and joystick for operation; safety features include an emergency-release button.
The winches will be delivered in 2025.