ITS Awards 2025 highlight pioneering owners, vessels and innovations 

Winner of ITS Tug of the Year 2025, sponsored by Bureau Veritas, was LNG Sentinel I, an LNG-diesel fuelled terminal tug with a high bollard pull for its class, operated by Boluda Towage affiliate Hongkong Salvage & Towage at an import terminal in Hong Kong. This 42-m tug was built by Cheoy Lee Shipyards to Robert Allan’s RAstar 4200-DF design, with a bollard pull astern of 105 tonnes and a top speed of 14 knots. It helps maintain a safety zone around the terminal and assists LNG carriers berthing at the jetty.  

Shortlisted tugs for the award were: the first battery-electric tugboat in Europe, BB Electra, built by Sanmar Shipyards for Bukser og Berging to a Robert Allan design; Bu Tinah as the world’s most powerful electric tugboat, owned by Noatum Maritime and built by Damen Shipyards; and Iron Dove, the second mechanical hybrid-powered tug built in Europe, by Med Marine to a Robert Allan design for Svitzer.

LNG Sentinel I also beat these shortlisted nominees to the award: Meta 7, South Korea’s first hybrid-electric tugboat; Silivri, an LNG-diesel dual-fuel tractor tug owned by Botas Petroleum and built by Uzmar Shipyard; Svitzer Taurus, the world’s first TRAnsverse tug built by Sanmar; and Damen designed and built Volta 1.

The ITS Innovation of the Year Award, sponsored by Uzmar, was presented to Ultratug and MAHI Solution for implementing MAHI’s remote operation unit of 2010-built, 32-m tugboat Enco in Chile. With this on board, Ultratug was able to remotely navigate Enco from an operations centre at its headquarters in Vina Del Mar, Chile.

This beat shortlisted nominees to the award, including: Amogy for its cracking technology that splits ammonia to liberate hydrogen, which powers retrofitted tugboat NH3 Kraken, enabling zero-emission operation; InnovateUK CMDC4 Project Partners – a collaborative project producing green hydrogen in a port environment to power harbour tugs with zero emissions; and Kotug International and Skeye for using autonomous aerial technology during towage operations to enhance safety during line transfers.  

Port of Antwerp-Bruges was also shortlisted for the Methatug tugboat retrofit project mentioned above, as was Sensor Technologies for its Sureline system which offers real-time remote monitoring of fibre rope performance during towage. 

The final award of the evening, Sanmar-sponsored ITS Lifetime Achievement Award 2025, was presented to Kommer Damen for his decades of commitment to constructing tugboats, workboats and other marine service vessels. He joined Damen Shipyards in 1969, acquiring the shipbuilder from his father and then introducing a modular shipbuilding concept for constructing small vessels and launches. This concept of standardisation has several advantages, such as reduced delivery times and costs by using proven designs. The concept was an immediate success, and in 1973, the expansion of Damen Shipyards in Gorinchem began.

Damen continued growing, and soon the group started exporting and expanding its range into multiple sectors including harbour services, ship towage, dredging, pilotage and offshore support. Its harbour tug designs are used worldwide by many shipyards and markets, making Damen one of the foremost largest producers of newbuild tugboats.