Fairplay Towage has placed orders for two azimuth stern drive tugs to plug a gap in its fleet operating in northwest Europe
Damen Shipyards received an order for two azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs for harbour and deepsea towage and emergency response.
Fairplay contracted Damen to supply two ASD tugs with ice-class capabilities and propulsion compliant with IMO Tier III emissions requirements as it modernises its fleet and reduces pollutants from its operations.
Damen will produce one tug to its ASD 2813 design with 80 tonnes of bollard pull to support ships in harbours, and the other to another unspecified ASD design with 60 tonnes of bollard pull and an aft winch for offshore towage.
Both vessels will be fitted with two main diesel engines and selective catalytic reduction units for minimising NOx emissions and an external FiFi firefighting system for swift emergency response.
“When considering our acquisition plans, we had been looking for modern tug designs with outstanding ice-class capabilities to strengthen and rejuvenate our fleet,” said Fairplay Towage’s offshore division director Arkadiusz Ryz.
“This is precisely what we have found in Damen’s proposal. One vessel will be equipped with an aft winch which will allow us to offer a large variety of services,” he said.
“It will plug a gap in our line-up between our harbour tugs such as the Damen RSD Tug 2513 design, and our Damen Shoalbuster 2711 Fairplay-37.”
Larger ships, especially container carriers, are calling at ports and terminals in northern Europe necessitating the need for more powerful tugs able to handle them.
“We have noticed our customers are increasingly demanding high bollard pull and this is why we are adding another newbuild tug with 80 tonnes plus bollard pull to our fleet in the form of a Damen ASD Tug 2813,” said Mr Ryz.
These newbuilds will be named Fairplay-45 and Fairplay-47 once they are completed. Fairplay expects port emissions to be reduced when these tugs arrive as they will be more efficient than older units that are retired, and they will have exhaust aftertreatment systems for IMO Tier III compliance.
Damen builds ASD tugs and its reverse stern drive (RSD) tugs in China and Vietnam and transports them to Europe on heavy transport ships.
Its ASD 2813 tugs have an overall length of 28 m, a beam of 13 m, a design draught of 6 m, accommodation for 10 crew, fuel capacity of 89 m3 and a top speed of almost 13 knots.
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