A South American tug owner has increased its ship escorting capabilities by purchasing a tug from a leading Turkish shipbuilder
A South American tug owner has increased its ship escorting capabilities by purchasing a tug from a leading Turkish shipbuilder.
Colombian towage and salvage company, Coltugs, has bought an escort-rated azimuth stern drive (ASD) tug from Turkish constructor and owner Med Marine.
The 32-m tug has been renamed Caño Cristales and will be mobilised from Turkey to Colombia. Coltugs, a joint venture between ports and towage company Coremar and tugboat owner Ultratug, will use the ASD tug to escort and support larger ships berthing in Colombian ports.
Caño Cristales was built in 2018 for Med Marine’s own fleet to a Robert Allan Ramparts 3200 design and RINA class as an escort and salvage, green tug with fire-fighting and oil recovery equipment.
This 476-gt vessel has an overall beam of 11.6 m and a loaded draught of 4.19 m, a free sailing speed of 12.0 knots and bollard pull of more than 75 tonnes.
Caño Cristales has a pair of CAT 3516C D-rated diesel engines that develop a total output of 4,200 kW driving two Schottel SRP1515 azimuthing thrusters with controllable pitch propellers of 260 cm diameter.
Also in the engineroom are two Caterpillar CAT C9 gensets and one CAT C4.4 harbour generator. These provide total electrical power of 436 kW for vessel services, including the deck machinery.
Two fire-fighting (FiFi1) pumps are driven by the main engines and can deliver around 2,600 m3/hr of water. THR Marine supplied the electric-driven, frequency controlled, escort winch with an integrated anchor windlasses.
Caño Cristales is a sister tug of Claus, which was sold by Med Marine to German operator J Johannsen & Sohn in 2018.
Ultratug operates tugs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.
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