A Young Brothers crew joins the Hawaiian blessing ceremony for the Kapena Raymond Alapai tugboat.

(BIVN) – A new Young Brothers tugboat – one of four technologically-advanced tugs to be added to the fleet in 20 years – arrived in Hilo Harbor on Sunday.

The tugboat – named Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi after Raymond Alapaʻi, one of the original Young Brothers’ captains – was welcomed to Port with a celebration and traditional Hawaiian blessing.

The new tugboat will provide better service, and lower emissions, officials say.

The Kapena Raymond Alapai tugboat.

A video news release was shared on behalf Young Brothers, with this additional information:

Young Brothers, LLC, Hawaiʻi’s inter-island tug and barge company, blessed the Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi upon its arrival to Hilo. The new tugboat is the second of four new technologically-advanced tugs to be added to the fleet in 20 years. With seven ports on Oʻahu, Kauai, Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi and the Island of Hawaiʻi, Young Brothers transports nearly 100 percent of all cargo by ocean that originates and ends in Hawaiʻi.
 
“The Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi represents our commitment to provide unmatched inter-island freight handling and transportation services and superior customer service to the people of Hawaiʻi,” says Joe Boivin, president of Young Brothers, LLC. “Our new tugs will reduce carbon emissions, increase fuel savings and help advance Hawaiʻi’s energy sustainability goals.”
 
The Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi is named after Raymond Alapaʻi, one of the original Young Brothers’ captains. The blessing in Hilo featured hula performed by the Alapaʻi ʻohana, as well as remarks by Senator Lorraine Inouye and Representative Chris Todd. Young Brothers was presented with a proclamation congratulating and recognizing the company’s addition of the new class of tugs, which are designed to accommodate Young Brothers’ fleet of modern high capacity barges. The tugs will produce a significant reduction in fuel consumption, meet strict Tier 4 emission standards, protect the environment and contribute to cleaner air and oceans for Hawaiʻi.
 
“It’s an honor to know my father left a legacy,” said Jay Cee Alapaʻi, Kāpena Raymond Alapa’i’s son. “We’re the type of family that is very low key, but to have a prestigious company like Young Brothers do something like this for our dad is something remarkable. He would be overwhelmed as well as very humbled.”  
 
As the second of four new Tier 4 tugs, the Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi joins Young Brothers’ fleet of six tugboats and eight barges making 12 regulated sailings per week, over 600 per year, in all weather conditions. The Kāpena Raymond Alapaʻi, along with all of Young Brothers’ Tier 4 tugs, will improve the company’s ability to provide on-time cargo service to Neighbor Island communities, while enhancing service through lower maintenance down time, better tow speeds, greater operating efficiencies, and lower emissions.
 
Young Brothers plans to hold a blessing for all four new tugs in Honolulu in June 2019.