In February 2006, Florida Marine Transporters (FMT), Mandeville, La., took delivery of a new 90′ towboat — its first newbuild from Eastern Shipbuilding Group. Ninety-nine boats and almost 14 years later, FMT added the new 3,200-hp towboat David Goin to its fleet.
“The majority of our boats were similar. We had mostly electronics changes until Subchapter M came along,” said Jeff Brumfield, FMT’s director of vessel engineering and construction. “Since we’ve known about what the Coast Guard expects...