French port boosts ship towage with newbuilds

Ship manoeuvring and docking in the Port of Saint-Malo, France is being enhanced with the addition of two newbuild tugboats fitted with equipment to cut emissions.

Construction group Piriou built these two 22-m tugs at its shipyard in Vietnam and transported them on a cargo ship to Brittany to deliver them on 23 September 2024 to the concession holder, EDEIS Ports de Saint-Malo & Cancale.

They were built to Piriou’s OST 22 design with a beam of 8.5 m under a €10.3M (US$11.4M) investment to renew the fleet and replace Grand Bé, which was decommissioned in 2021.

Solidor and Cite d’Aleth were designed with dimensions suitable for passing through the Saint-Malo lock and for manoeuvrability constraints in the wet dock and Saint-Malo’s outer harbour.

They are equipped for ship towage operations from bow and stern, vessel handling, berthing ships and to extend the concession holder’s activities to include emergency response, marine works and barge transport.

“The acquisition of these two tugs will enable EDEIS to meet all the requirements of the towing division of the Port of Saint-Malo, and to provide new services,” said Piriou president Vincent Faujour.

These tugs have a FiFi1 fire-fighting system with a pump with capacity of 1,400 m³/hr of water, a stern winch, a lifting crane and a wheelhouse providing a tug master with visibility over the working area, both horizontally and vertically.

Propulsion systems include two main diesel four-stroke engines linked to a selective catalytic reduction unit and urea tank for minimising NOx emissions and IMO Tier III compliance, driving two azimuth thrusters at the stern.

EDEIS has tested these tugs in the port and they will commence commercial operations in October 2024.