Washburn & Doughty will launch the “Katie T. Moran” Thursday marking the 25th tug they have built for the nation’s largest towing company, the Moran Towing Company.

Bearing the company’s traditional M painted on its stack, the 86-foot-long vessel will slide down the ways at the W&D East Boothbay shipyard in the afternoon into the Damariscotta River.

Although the tug is a highly computerized work vessel, she will be launched the traditional way as workers will hammer a series of oak wedges to transfer the weight of the craft to the ways. At the launching ceremony, the vessel will slide stern first into the river “It is a technique that worked for the (ancient) Egyptians and is good today,” Bruce Washburn said.

Washburn, a principal in the shipyard company, said the newest tug is a harbor tug featuring a “Z” drive mated to a 5100 horsepower diesel engine. She can pull 60 metric tons, a task required by the American Bureau of Shipping, the major marine construction regulatory agency, he said.

The shipyard took nearly a year to build the vessel, designed to operate with a crew of four as the “Z” drive makes them highly maneuverable, which gives them a huge efficiency advantage over a conventionally powered tug, he said.

The yard has another 86-foot-long tug under construction and has orders for three 93-foot-long tugs, Washburn said.

Moran Towing is the oldest and largest supplier of tugs on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, with operations in 16 U.S. ports and five LNG terminals, stretching from New Hampshire to Mexico.

Washburn & Doughty employs 75 workers in the new East Boothbay yard.