TUGBOATS, TEXAS-STYLE
The Tugboat Enthusiasts Society’s Annual Gathering for 2008
GALVESTON, TEXAS, OCTOBER 12-16

Why Galveston? The Houston Ship Channel, a 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities, starts at Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico and ends in the heart of Houston. The Port of Houston is ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne tonnage and second in the US in total tonnage, with more than 200 million tons of cargo and 7,550 vessel calls in 2006. And all those vessels need tugs! Two Houston-based companies, Bay-Houston and Suderman & Young, own or charter tugs and market their services, and a third company, G&H Towing, operates 33 tugs, the fourth-largest tug fleet in the US, on their behalf in five Texas ports. G&H’s main operational base is at Galveston, and G&H/Galveston and the two tug companies will be our hosts for the Gathering.

Why October? Lower hotel rates and nicer weather. (Traditionally, October daily highs are the in low 80’s and there is little rain.)

The Gathering will be based at the Victorian Condo Hotel and Conference Center (recently associated with Hawthorne Suites). Facing the Gulf of Mexico on Seawall Street, this three-star- complex has about 200 condos, many for rent, and TES has reserved two blocks of condos. A one-bedroom condo (sleeps four) costs $89 per night plus 15% tax, while a two-bedroom condo (sleeping up to six) costs $149 plus tax. A full breakfast is served, Contact Tava Matzke at 409 740-3555 x2231 for reservations and do mention the Society rate!
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• Sunday, October 12, is Arrival Day. Check in at a meeting room that will be dedicated to the Society for the whole time we are at Galveston. That evening, there will be the first of several informal show-and-tell sessions that will fill odd moments of time during the Gathering. Retired tugboat and towboat master Capt Charlie Teller will be present at one sessions and will tell us about Texas-style tug-driving. (Maybe someone will ask him long it took to make up his mind to accept a Coast Guard rescue chopper’s invitation to step off his tug.) Please bring video cassettes, CDs, DVDs—anything relating to tugs—to share with others. A full set of audio-video equipment should be on hand—everything needed except personal computers.

• Monday is Galveston Day, a day devoted to visiting the area’s many attractions. A TES Gathering bus will pass by major attractions on a continuous-loop basis all day—hop off, see something, and pick up the bus again about an hour later and head for the next place. We’ll provide full information on where to go but among the attractions will be Moody Garden, the maritime museum and the Tall Ship ELISSA, the Lone Star Flight Museum with its many flyable WW II planes, the Offshore Oil-Rig museum, the Railroad Museum with its authentic railroad station filled with wonderful sculptural recreations of long-gone railroad users and, outside, five tracks full of cars and engines, the Bishop’s House, and much more. For those who relish good shopping and appreciate interesting architecture, the Strand shopping center and its adjacent block after block of historic old homes match anything seen elsewhere in the South. You arrange for lunch somewhere, but the evening meal is a buffet in the meeting room.

• Tuesday is Tug Day. We will visit G&H’s Galveston operations on Pelican Island, an extensive facility supporting all 33 tugs. Given today’s security practices and other factors, actually riding on a tug hsa become increasingly improbable but we will climb aboard a few tugs, maybe one of the new and most-impressive Z-Tech 7500 escort tugs G&H operates for the two companies, and spend several hours touring an extensive tug operations base. Since it has a well-equipped classroom, you may even be exposed to some of the training material used for G&H employees and maybe you’ll hear some revelations about the operational differences among classes of the most-modern tugs as perceived by the tugdriver!

We’ll also tour Galveston harbor by boat and may stop off at Texas A&M/Galveston for a talk by a professor about his tug-related researches. (If not, he will talk with us one evening.) The university is also home to the Texas Maritime Academy whose big training vessel, TS TEXAS CLIPPER II, is moored at the edge of the campus.) Box lunches will be provided plus an evening buffet at the wonderful Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant with the ELISSA right outside.

• Wednesday is Houston Day. We bus to Houston, have a buffet lunch at Brady’s Landing, a waterfront restaurant overlooking the Ship Channel. We’ll board the Port Authority’s tour boat SAM HOUSTON for a thorough survey of the upper Houston Ship Channel. (Sorry, no cameras allowed on this voyage.) But the rest of the day will be filled with photo opportunities and other activities, all culminating in the Banquet back at Galveston that night.

• Thursday, October 16, is Departure Day.

A meeting at Galveston inevitably brings up the subject of hurricanes. Are they a threat to the Gathering? Yep/Maybe. The early-season activity this year is “proof” that a hurricane is statistically less-likely to hit Galveston in October! Anyhow, a survey of several past-Gathering attendees indicated the threat of a hurricane wouldn’t faze them. (In case of an imminent hurricane, cancellation is, however, a possibility! You will be notified if you provide your telephone and/or e-mail address in the form below.)

Attendance is limited to sixty people, a number determined by the number of seats on the bus we will use. Cost per person is $252 based on fifty people signing up. (We may ask for donations to help cancel a loss if a smaller number signs up.) The fee covers five noon and evening meals, rent of the bus, cost of the meeting room and A/V equipment, and other necessary expenses,

(Above planning is tentative, and more information will be provided later.)
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TES-Office Support, 38 Kimball Avenue, Unit #2, Ipswich, MA 01938