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promotional feature Red towboats remain busy workers I t was back in 1986, after the demise of the Julian Blue Boats empire, that tug master Jimmy Thomson and his son Mike Thomson saw an opportunity to start up their own tow boat business to fill the gap. After Jim completed a dredge dumping contract from Half Moon bay, leasing Sea Tow 24 from Pat Ganley, they purchased their first tow boat, Mana, an ex Harbour Board vessel. A large portion of the company's work at this stage was Sea-Tow sand barges, chemical barges and bunkering ships. After the purchase of Mana, Sea Tow 24 remained on charter. As demand increased then came the ex Blue Boats twin engine wooden tow boat Saga, which was shortly followed by Kaitoa ex Stevenson's and finally the ex Napier little tug Mahia as the business quickly grew. Both Jimmy and Mike continued to work hard, taking on a variety of harbour work and building a strong reputation by maintaining low overheads, good vessels Thomson Towboats in action and skilled crew. A new deck hand had to shape up fast or was quickly shipped out, and there was no way you would be put in charge of one of their vessels until you had passed the Jimmy test. In 1994, Lance joined Jimmy as deck hand/engineer and in keeping with Jimmy's policy, he had to prove himself capable before being allowed on the handlebars. Thomson Towboats continued to grow and with the advent of cellphones, the office shifted from Jimmy's kitchen to become mobile in the wheelhouse. Shore facilities have always remained spartan, just hanging onto enough berthage for the boats and a space for the mobile workshop in a container and stowage for associated gear. Contracting to Heron Construction on the America's Cup village dredging project allowed the company to purchase the Australian built tug Nautilus III from Polaris Marine in Sydney which facilitated a move into more coastal type work. As the work changed so the towboats were changed, the Kaitoa sold to Total Marine Services and the Saga was sold to Dave Skyrme in Opua. Their next acquisition after selling the Nautilus to Mc Manaway tug and barge in Picton, was the Christine Mary, ex QS Maple, built in Malaysia and purchased from Brisbane. A much bigger tug, the purchase of Christine Mary in 2002 and named after Jimmy's wife, opened up offshore work to the islands with the delivery of nickel barges to the mines on Noumea in 2011 as well as other work. After Christine Mary the ex Auckland Harbour Board tug Manukau was purchased from Sea-Tow. In 2008 Mike Thomson left the business and went on to establish Kaipara Towboats barging sand on the Kaipara Harbour. In 2010 Lance and his wife Virginia were given the opportunity to buy into the business as a part of Jimmy's exit strategy and succession plan. www.skipper.co.nz Lance completed an apprenticeship at Marine Steel as fitter and turner under the watchful eye of Pat Ganley, he then joined Sea Tow 23 as engineer. The deck sea time gained there allowed Lance to sit his CLM, then going on to sail on various container ships, accumulating sea time for his MEC 3. The present Thomson fleet stands at three tugs and the dumb barge Maui, ex Northport, half owned with Kaipara Towboats. The company now employs five permanent staff plus casuals with Virginia running the office work and accounts. Meanwhile, Jimmy just can't stay away as he drops in just to the keep the lads on their toes, to give a bit of valued advice or as back up skipper when required. "On call work remains a large part of our business," says Lance. "Having Jimmy on standby is great for all of us especially when we are doing the chemical run up the Tamaki Estuary to the Stolthaven chemical depot. The chemical barge Marstel is 74 metres long which requires two tow boats, one on a tow line and the larger strapped alongside." "The Tamaki is busy at the best of times and while we plan our arrivals and departures to miss the Half Moon Bay ferry sailings, there is no room for error," says Lance. Unfortunately, the recreational moorings have been allowed to encroach further into the main channel leaving only a few metres clearance at times, and given the nature of the cargo this is of concern to the maritime industry. Some interesting tows for Thomson's have included a tug and barge damaged on a reef in New Caledonia and towed to New Zealand for repairs before being towed back to Noumea again. The rescue of the 101m 5,752grt OXL Oceanic OXL adrift 250nm northwest of North Cape proved that smaller tugs like the Christine Mary were capable for the job when in the right hands. Besides the normal work and calls for salvage jobs, other interesting jobs included babysitting over 450 tonnes of high explosives in 38 containers that had to be offloaded onto barges and held at the explosive anchorage at Motuihe while the ship entered port to work its cargo. Assisting berthing a ship at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery, to plucking a newly launched superyacht out of the Henderson creek, to towing a barge with 800 tonnes of spoil to dump east of Great Barrier Island is all in a day's work for the boys at Thomson Towboats Ltd. The company with Christine Mary, Manukau and Mahia has a small fleet of functional and efficient towboats manned by skilled tug masters and an able crew who is ready to respond within hours to most situations 24/7. Contact: 0274 961 440 0274 801 971 or 09 307 8021 www.thomsontowboats.co.nz or visit Facebook July/August 2013 Professional Skipper 59