On Wed, 23 Sep 2015 10:38:36 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

Wayne, do they even use tugs for that anymore? Or is it all done by bow thrusters?

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The trend seems to be that ferrys and cruise ships are using
thrusters, both bow and stern. They do a lot of docking and undocking
so avoiding tug boats saves a lot of money. Cargo ships and large
military vessels are still using tugs for the most part.

Yes expensive. When I had my old Chris craft on Carlyle lake the dock club had a cookout going on and I got acquainted with a guy that worked for a tow company out of St. Louis. They had a small fleet of barge engines. That ran the ICW. He said those boats averaged about $18-2300. An hr depending...

And that was in about 1985.