A hectic period for tug newbuild deliveries

It has been a frantic period for tug newbuild deliveries in Europe in Q3 2019 as owners boosted their harbour towage and salvage capabilities.

Poland’s Remontowa Shipbuilding has constructed six tugs for the Polish Navy and started building multipurpose tug and offshore vessels. Its Gdansk facility has produced three of a series of six B860-class naval tugs. The first, Bolko, was launched in October 2018 and brought into service in Q1 2019.

Two more of these B860 tugs – Gniewko and Mieszko – were delivered in Q3 2019. All six are designed by the NED Project bureau for handling naval ships and vessel recovery, oil spill response and search and rescue operations. The other three tugs are scheduled for completion Q4 2019 and into 2020.

Remontowa will complete two multipurpose towage and offshore vessels for the maritime offices, in Szczecin for delivery in Q2 2020, and Gdynia in Q3 2020. These 60-m, diesel-electric powered vessels will be equipped for operations including emergency ship towage, firefighting, breaking ice in Polish ports and coastal areas during northern hemisphere winter months and servicing Polish navigational aids.

Remontowa is fitting them with engineroom systems that comply with IMO Tier III emissions requirements including three Cummins QSK50 diesel units that each generate 1,359 kW of electric power at 1,800 rpm.

Danish company DBB Salvage took delivery of two towage and marine construction support vessels from Neptune Marine’s shipyard in the Netherlands. These EuroCarrier 2495 design vessels – DBS Asterix and DBS Indefix – are also used for anchor handling and dredging support in the Baltic region.

These vessels have enlarged propellers to increase the bollard pull and upgrades to achieve tug notation. They have twin hydraulic spudlegs, moonpools for deploying multi-beam survey equipment, A-frames and special fendering.

Neptune Marine also delivered an ice-class EuroTug 3010 design vessel to Russia-based Beluga Projects Logistic in Q3 2019. Beluga Rotterdam was upgraded to ice-class IB with strengthened steel structures and high-power onboard equipment. It has a bow designed for push barges in coastal and inland seaways and ice breaking in Russia’s northern territorial waters.

Greece-based tug owner Spanopoulos Group has built its own fleet of vessels at New Hellenic Shipyard. Three tugs were delivered to the owner in 2019 – Christos XXX, Christos XXXI and Christos XLV. These harbour tugs have already gone into service in Greece to provide towage and escort services to a range of shipping around Piraeus where there is a growth in container traffic.

Also in the Mediterranean, Rimorchiatori Napoletani added another powerful harbour tug to its fleet in September 2019. The Naples, Italy-headquartered group boosted its tug fleet to 20 vessels with a Bogacay-class newbuilding from Sanmar Marine in Turkey, to enhance its towage and ship-handling operations. Galluzzo is a 24.4-m tug with a beam of 11.25 m and accommodation designed for six crew.

This azimuth stern drive (ASD) vessel is a new class of Bogacay tug with a bollard pull of around 75 tonnes. It has a pair of Caterpillar 3516C main diesel engines, each developing 2,350 kW of power at 1,800 rpm driving two Kongsberg US 255 FP Z-drives with built-in slipping clutches.

Sanmar’s naval architects adapted a Robert Allan design for this tug. On the request of the owner, Sanmar installed a foldable mast with hydraulic controls in the wheelhouse for when the tug is operating close to ships’ flared bow. Galluzzo also has a FiFi1 fire-fighting system, a dedicated rescue boat and a Heila launch/recovery crane.

Spanish tug group Boluda Corporacion Maritima added two more escort and harbour tugs to its fleet in France this year. It took delivery of VB Concorde and VB Mirage from Piriou’s shipyard in Vietnam as part of an eight-vessel newbuilding campaign.

Damen, which also has shipyards in Vietnam, delivered three tugs to different European owners. This included Sea Juliett to Seacontractors, Vincenzino O to Moby and Auxilia to ST Marine.