Page 141 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Left to right: Peterson’s Marine team on the Ahbra Franco (L-R) Randy Richter, Patrick Higgins, Matt George, Rich Floyd; Starlight Marine’s Ahbra Franco in 2013
Instead, we have to sub-out the work to another company, which nets out to a big loss of revenue for us.” That’s where Peterson comes in. “Over the years, I’ve had situations come up, especially on Friday afternoons or long weekends. And there was always somebody on-call at Peterson. I knew that all I had to do was pick up the phone,” said Zwart. “I had Peterson’s dispatcher on speed dial. I was up in the Whidbey Islands on a long weekend one time and got a call from one of my captains about a problem with an engine. So I speed-dialed Peterson’s dispatch and within twenty-four hours, that boat was back in service. That’s the kind of service we have to have. That’s why I appreciate Peterson and its people.”
Bar pilot vessels are the other half of the work- boat equation on the San Francisco Bay. California requires that every incoming ship use a bar pilot for navigating the bay. These boats are one hun- dred feet long and powered by a pair of Cat 3508 engines. They act as water taxis and small floating hotels for the pilots specially licensed to bring all large ships into the San Francisco Bay. Once a ship arrives outside the Golden Gate, the vessel delivers
its passenger to the side of the giant ship—often on rough seas—and waits while the man boards the ship using a rope ladder. The bar pilot’s job is to guide tankers, container ships, and cruise ships under the area’s bridges, maneuver the Bay’s un- derwater topography, and get them safely to berth.
STARLIGHT MARINE ON SF BAY
Peterson customer Starlight Marine, based in Al- ameda, California, is a subsidiary of Harley Ma- rine, which is headquartered in Seattle. However, Harley builds their tugboats in Portland (Peterson territory), not Seattle, and runs them at every port along the West Coast. In 2012, Starlight Marine decided to retrofit three of its Z-boat tugs, each powered by a pair of 3516s.1 When Richter found out his quote was high, he took the issue to upper management, who told him to land the deal no matter what. Ultimately, Peterson got the six-en- gine deal because of a determined commitment to earn the customer’s trust. “We are now selling engines to Harley Marine,” says Richter, who fa- cilitated the $1.5 million job.
1 See the full story on pg 248, Starlight Marine Repowers.
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