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Donald

“Boysie”

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Patrol Boats

Business

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T H E I N F O R M A T I O N A U T H O R I T Y F O R T H E W O R K B O A T • O F F S H O R E • I N L A N D • C O A S T A L M A R I N E M A R K E T S

Line ‘em upIs U.S. Boatbuilding Back?

www.marinelink.com MN 33

Patterson’s YoYo Barge Winch transcends efficiency, whilecreating a markedly safer workplace.

In business since 1858, the Patterson Company ofPittsburgh, PA has shown the staying power like few oth-ers in the ever-changing and always competitive marineindustry. A barge and towboat winch manufacturer morethan a half century, the company is primarily known fortheir contributions to that market even today. Theirnewest entry into the winch market – the Patterson YoYoWinch – may be their most important ever. That’s becausethe revolutionary money and timesaving winch also trans-lates into untold gains in safety and reduction in lost manhours.

Unlike efficiency gains, safety is much more difficultmetric to track. Take Patterson’s online savings calculator,for example. Accessed by clicking

www.pattersonmfg.com/calculator.html

The ROI device calculates operational cost per boat, pertrip and the time savings netted by simply changing to thePatterson Yoyo winch. In the end, time equals money andPatterson and its loyal clients have proven that the winchcan reduce the time to make up barge tows by more thanhalf, allowing more hauling time and runs for their equip-ment. The time to amortize the additional cost of a YoYoWinch is therefore easy to figure. Safety, on the otherhand, is just as important and perhaps an overlookedaspect of the Patterson story.

Listening to the needs of their customers, Patterson pro-duced a YoYo Winch that is both safer and more reliable,eliminating fouling and springcoil, while controllingspooling with its singlestacking design. And, while thatmeans the job will get done faster with tremendous costsavings, it is also safer. Barge laborers accustomed to see-ing as many as 5 different types of winch in a single daynever want to see (or carry) a ratchet again. For fleet stan-dardization reasons alone, the winch makes sense onmany levels.

Completely different from anything else on today’s mar-ket, YoYo’s operation is simple and safe, utilizing a patent-ed double-dog design that allows easy maximum line ten-

On Deck with Patterson’s YoYo Barge Winch

Cashing in on Safety

PRODUCT FOCUS • SAFETY

34 MN January 2012

PRODUCT FOCUS • SAFETY

The Patterson YoYo Key PointsSafety Ease of Operation Faster Specifications

Contained spring coil virtually Operation is simple for Intuitive one-man Capacity – 80,000 lbs

eliminates injuries due to rope your crew and requires operation

memory minimal if any guidance

Eliminates ‘bird nesting’ or ‘fouling’ Requires little or no re-tightening Patented double-dog design makes Typical Line tension – 26,000 lbs

or wire rope on the winch drum while the barge is underway. makes for easy maximum line

tensioning

Full gear shroud protects wire Easiest wire rope payout/ Fully open design makes the winch Drum Capacity – 1” 25’

rope, gearing and operators. pull-off in the industry. safe, easy, and a pleasure to operate

Significantly reduce financial losses Easier to obtain higher line tension Markedly reduced failures keep barge Overall W x H – 22.7” x 28.9”

related to medical and time-lost bills. without exerting any additional effort. equipment in service available for

increased cargo hauling.

www.marinelink.com MN 35

sioning. Perhaps more importantly,the YoYo’s contained springcoil elimi-nates injuries due to rope memory.And, in an industry where a primarycost of operating tonnage – especiallyhere in the United States – can beclaims from seamen for on-the-jobinjuries, safety gains achieved throughthe YoYo Winch can, for some opera-tors, eclipse operational gains.

Today, over 3,000 YoYo winches,representing just 5 percent of themarket, are in operation on thenation’s waterways. For the largeroperator who might operate thou-sands of barges and has not yet madethe switch, the potential downstreambenefits are easy to calculate. Andsince there have been no instances ofYoYo winches ever fouling, the sav-ings go well beyond time clocked tomake up the unit. A barge with afouled “birdnested” standard winchmust go out of service until rectified.That’s just one of many reasons com-panies like American Electric Powerand Campbell TransportationCompa¬ny (CTC) have chosen thePatterson YoYo Winch for fleet oper-ations.

In the more than 100 years since thefirst patent to tie barges together wastaken out, the technology hasarguably not moved forward verymuch – until now. Today, three pri-mary manufacturers distribute multi-ple winches. Someday, the simpleutility of YoYo Winches could eclipseall of them. Appealing strictly to thebottom line, the use of YoYo Winchesover the breadth of a large inland fleetcan annually save towing companiesmillions of dollars. That’s not only awise move; it’s a safe bet.

www.pattersonmfg.com