Captain Shane Smith, President

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Shane learned all aspects of the tugboat business including diving, salvage, bunkering and ocean towing at Smith Maritime in Hawaii, which his late father Jimmy Smith founded in the 1970’s.

 

He wanted to explore other companies outside of the family owned business, so he moved to California. There, he worked for over 30 years as a Tug Captain performing coastwise towing, pushing barges on the rivers, and ship docking on the San Francisco Bay. He has operated push boats, conventional, and tractor tugs.

 

Shane has spent a good part of his career training Captains and helping companies go through internal and external audits, with a full understanding of the SMS systems.

 

What concerned him most was that the SMS systems used by tug companies were focused on monthly or quarterly MOB drills, while never having a way to retrieve the person from the water.

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The Company

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Shane started C-HERO LLC in a shop with the idea of helping crews with MOB recovery. From these humble beginnings, the company has come a long way, providing a complete rescue product line.

 

Our partnerships with Emerald Marine Products, Harken, and Spinlock gives us access to the best rescue tools and engineering.