HaiSea completes all-electric tug fleet construction

Sanmar Shipyards built HaiSea Brave to the same Robert Allan Ltd ElectRA 2800 SX design as its first two battery-powered tugboats, ITS Tug of the Year 2023 HaiSea Wamis and HaiSea Wee’Git, delivered earlier this year and now in Vancouver.

HaiSea Marine, a joint venture majority owned by the Haisla Nation in partnership with Seaspan ULC, will use all three zero-emissions tugs to provide harbour services at the LNG export terminal.

These 28.4-m tugs were built to ABS class with a beam of 13 m, a draught of 5.9 m, a top speed of 12 knots and 68 tonnes of bollard pull.

Corvus Energy supplied 6.1 MWh of battery capacity, Caterpillar-manufactured Cat C32 generator sets for backup power and Schottel supplied SCD 460 CombiDrive azimuth thrusters.

With ample clean hydroelectric power available in Kitimat, these tugs will be able to recharge from dedicated shore-charging facilities at their berths between jobs.

HaiSea expects its green tug fleet to reduce CO2 emissions by around 10,000 tonnes per year, compared to diesel-powered alternatives, with major reductions of NOx, SOx, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, as well.

Sanmar is also commissioning two LNG-fuelled tugs, HaiSea Kermode and HaiSea Warrior, for HaiSea Marine, to be used to escort gas carriers from the Pacific Ocean to the Kitimat terminal.

The tugs were built to Robert Allan’s RAstar 4000 DF design and ABS-classed as the first LNG-powered tugs to operate in Canada.