Sanmar Shipyards has completed two escort tugs for Orkney Island Council (OIC) to support tanker loading in northern Scotland
OIC technical consultant Peter Reid approved technical acceptance of these two tugs at Sanmar’s Altinova facility in Turkey.
Sanmar will prepare Odin of Scapa and Thor of Scapa for their voyage to their new home at Scapa Flow in Orkney during September.
These tugs are part of OIC’s modernisation and renewal of its tug fleet as it readies for another double-decade of tanker loadings from the Flotta terminal and other ship activity in Orkney.
Both vessels were built to Robert Allan’s RAstar 3200SX design for shallow draught escort tugs.
“Escort forces are enhanced by the effects of the sponsons and by the prominent foil-shaped escort skeg forward” on the hullform, said Sanmar. “Roll motions and accelerations are less than half those of comparable sized standard wall-sided tug hulls.”
Odin of Scapa and Thor of Scapa incorporate full fire-fighting capabilities. Their winches on fore and aft decks provide enhanced capabilities over the current OIC tugs, further improving operational safety and increasing the operational flexibility available to the harbour authority.
Both tugs incorporate features for OIC’s marine services specific requirements for the conditions in Orkney and escort operations.
As RAstar design tugs, they are high powered for demanding escort operations in exposed areas, such as open water terminal operations in Scapa Flow, where a high standard of seakeeping is required.
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