European owners have invested in powerful tugs to assist large ships in ports and inland waterways while reducing emissions
European owners have invested in powerful tugs to assist large ships in ports and inland waterways while reducing emissions. Shipyards in Europe and Turkey benefited from growing investment in the sector, while more tug newbuildings prepare to meet IMO Tier III emissions reduction standards.
Many of the tugs delivered to European owners in Q2 2021 had ice-class and even ice-breaking capabilities in response to requirements for continuing maritime trade in iced-up harbours.
Prime examples of these ice-breaking tugs are two built for Alfons Håkans by Sanmar at its Altinova Shipyard in Turkey. Selene and Helios were constructed to Robert Allan Ltd (RAL)’s TundRA 3200 design for ice breaking and ship manoeuvring in Baltic ports.
These escort tugs have Bureau Veritas class hull strength of ice class 1A and two Caterpillar 3516C main engines each driving a Kongsberg US 255 CP Z-drive. These 31.5-m tugs have a bollard pull of more than 65 tonnes. Both are also capable of performing open-sea towing, fire-fighting, small cargo transfers, salvage and oil spill recovery.
Svitzer took delivery of a second ice-breaking tug from Med Marine. Svitzer Edda has operated in Landskrona and Helsingborg ports, Sweden since its arrival in June, according to automatic identification system (AIS) data. The first of these tugs, Svitzer Embla, was working in Frederikshavn, Denmark and Gothenborg, Sweden, according to AIS. These 30-m tugs were built to the MED-A3060-ICE model, which is based on RAL’s TundRA 3000 design.
Med Marine also delivered two ice-class tugs to a division of Romania’s Ministry of Transport for ice management and vessel assistance along the Danube River. Azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugboats Covurlui and Sulina 2 were completed for the ministry’s Administratia Fluviala a Dunarii de Jos RA Galati (AFDJ) at the Eregli Shipyard on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
They were built to a MED-A3055 Ice-Super class with 55 tonnes of bollard pull, with Bureau Veritas’ ice class 1A super notation and are prepared to comply with IMO Tier III emissions regulations. Covurlui operates along the Danube River while Sulina 2 patrols the Danube between Sulina on the coast and Braila, covering 175 km to improve the safety and security of maritime traffic along the river.
AFDJ will use these ASD tugs to ensure the flow of ice pieces along the river, preventing ice bridge formations, which can be dangerous to ships. They will intervene to release ships from river ice, reducing the risk to shipping, lives and goods, and prevent pollution in the Danube.
Both tugs have a pair of Caterpillar 3512C main diesel engines, each delivering 1,902 kW of power, coupled to two Schottel SRP460 fixed pitch ASD units.
Sanmar completed tugs for other European owners in Q2 2021. It delivered Oriente to Rimorchiatori Napoletani to assist ships in the Port of Naples and Bamse to Buksér og Berging in Norway. Oriente is a RAL RAstar 2800 design escort tug with twin Caterpillar 3516 C HD main engines, each producing 2,525 kW of power at 1,800 rpm. These drive two Kongsberg US255 thrusters with fixed-pitch propellers of 280 cm diameter.
Damen Shipyards was busy in Q2 2021. It attended the inauguration of three reverse stern drive (RSD) tugs in Antwerp, Belgium, including two newbuildings from Damen and one purchased from Multraship Towage & Salvage.
These newbuildings have selective catalytic reaction (SCR) equipment in the engineroom to remove NOx from engine exhaust making them IMO Tier III compliant.
Damen also handed over its first diesel-electric Shoalbuster with hybrid propulsion to Herman Sr. Brutus is a new model in the Damen Shoalbuster range with dynamic positioning to DP2 class and SCRs for IMO Tier III compliant propulsion.
It was built to a Shoalbuster 3514 SD design for ultra-shallow operations including inland waterways, harbour and deepsea work and offshore windfarm support and maintenance duties. At 35 m, the vessel has a 14-m beam, draught of 2.45 m and a free deck space of 200 m2. It has a bollard pull of 60 tonnes, coming from four Caterpillar C32 Acert engines delivering a total of 3,876 kW of power to four 1,900-mm nozzle propellers.
In the inland waterways sector, Barkmeijer Shipyards delivered three diesel-electric, shallow-draught pushers to Chemgas Shipping in May. Maderas, Merapi and Muria operate with Chemgas ships from Vlissingen and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and from Antwerp to Basel, Switzerland.
These have Eprop electric propulsion and three Caterpillar C18 diesel generators for energy supply. These were built as KP1250 pusher tugs with 1.20 m draught, enabling river access even in low water levels, which is increasingly common during dry periods. Chemgas transports pressurised liquefied gases by sea and inland vessels up to 3,500 m3.
Barkmeijer also built pusher tug Thyssen I for ThyssenKrupp and Neptune Shipyards completed Eurocarrier Jif Mairi for Jifmar’s operations in the UK.
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