Cadal - Repowered for the future

Back in late 1988, when Dave Dalzell, owner of Wainwright Marine Services in Prince Rupert, had the Cadal built by Les Woodward’s Progressive Marine, he was, characteristically, thinking of the future. Several years of observations of the Al McIlwain designs working in southern B.C. waters convinced him to go with the 43’x19’6" hull to take on the open water work around Rupert. The bulwarks were raised six inches and additional channel guarding provide extra protection for log work. Thinking of maintenance costs five and 10 years down the road, Dalzell also invested the best part of $10,000 in pre-painted steel to provide corrosion protection and extend the longevity of Cadal’s hull. As the Cadal took shape Dalzell was also looking long-term to when he would be winding down his own involvement in the company and his head skipper, Brian Catherall, on the Wainwright tugs from 12 years of age, would be taking over. Deb Catherall christened the new tug Cadal, a symbolic combination of Brian and Dave’s surnames. Now, 14 years later, the Cadal has been transferred to Brian Catherall’s Trend Marine and is leased back to Wainwright Marine. The tug continues to be the strong backbone of the company’s operations, 95% of which are barging logging industry equipment around the North Coast.

Key to Cadal’s reliability is the scheduled maintenance program Ron Lowe (Rons’ Diesel Ltd.) has applied to the tug including re-enginings at the right times. Cadal’s first pair of Detroit Diesel 12V-71s (440 hp @ 1800 rpm) had to be nursed along to 10,000 hours and Ron Lowe was brought on for their replacement with a pair of 12V-92s (500 hp @ 1800 rpm). He and his crew and Brian Catherall recently carried out Cadal’s latest diesel upgrading with a pair of Detroit Series 60 14-litre diesels at Poplar Island Marine (Les Woodward’s yard located in the Arrow Marine Services yard on Mitchell Island).

As Dave Dalzell explains, "We were up to 26,000 hours on the V-92s and near 40,000 on the gears. With the scheduled maintenance, they were running great and we were going to try for 30,000 hours but an engine developed an oil leak and the crankshaft was damaged. That would require pulling the engine but we decided to bite the bullet and put in new engines and gears. We were in a slack period, so the time was right".

The success with which Cadal performs its barge towing and handling (and some log towing) tasks was a given, describes Ron Lowe. So, in the early stages of the re-engining program, he and Bob Osborne (Osborne Propellers) developed a propeller curve to match the range of work. Then they worked closely with Detroit Diesel as the engine software was designed to maximize the efficiency of the Cadal’s new electronic engines.

The main advantage of the Series 60 engines in Cadal’s operations will be very substantial fuel savings, says Lowe. The engine is able to deliver maximum thrust while electronically metering the optimum fuel burn at each engine setting. The Cadal’s existing engine controls are being used so the full DDEC package has not been installed, but Detroit Diesel Diagnostic Link (DDDL) provides the capability for monitoring a great number of engine performance parameters, such as percentage of time at different RPMs, load factors, fuel consumption for each engine at different loads, even individual cylinder performance. For a specific date or trip duration, using the onboard laptop computer, Catherall will be able to determine accurate information on the Cadal’s operating costs. Fuel is the biggest expense for most tug operators these days. Just loading a barge a bit differently can reduce fuel consumption and it’s that type of efficiency that will become evident through Cadal’s engine read-outs. If all goes as planned, says Dave Dalzell, the additional cost of the new engines over that of rebuilding them could well be recouped in fuel savings over about the next three years. Down the road, it all adds up.