Eagle Harbor Engineering
Eagle Harbor Engineering, PLLC (EHE) was founded by John Van Buskirk in 2006 to provide naval architectural and marine engineering services to clients in the marine field, with specialization in the tug and barge sector.  The idea was to offer customers the benefits of his operational experience to differentiate EHE from other consulting firms.  The idea has worked and EHE has completed hundreds of projects and has branched out from the initial niche of tugs and barges.
   
Mr. Van Buskirk has forty years experience in the marine field working for consulting firms, shipyards, and vessel operators.  For the twenty years prior to founding EHE, he worked for Maritrans, Inc. (now OSG America) and Crowley Maritime Corporation as Director of Engineering.  During this time Mr. Van Buskirk was responsible for:  

  • Design and construction for a 7,200 HP Voith-Schneider escort tug.
  • Preliminary design for numerous large tugs and barges.
  • Development of plans for tows of battleships Missouri and New Jersey and aircraft carrier Oriskany.  Tow and set down of gravity based drilling rig at Sakhalin Island.
  • Development of load plans for numerous deck barge cargoes. Examples include live loads of container cranes, submerged loads of barges, and roll on/off loads of modules on grounded barges.
  • Installation of the first Intercon articulated tug-barge connection system, and subsequent installation of the Intercon system on three other units.
  • Conversion of an 11,000 HP tug, originally part of a rigidly connected ITB, to an independent tug.   Modification of the world’s largest oil barge to work with the tug for crude oil lightering in Delaware Bay.
  • Design development for retrofit double hulling of large tank barges.
  
John Van Buskirk, Principal
 
​​Mr. Van Buskirk received his BS degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute in 1976 and his MBA in Finance from New York University in 1982.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer, a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and a past member of the American Bureau of Shipping’s North American Technical Committee.