Newbuild tug will boost English harbour operations

Harbour towage on the south coast of England will be boosted by the arrival of a new tug built in Scotland.

Macduff Ship Design has completed harbour tug Acamar after one year of construction at its facility near Banff, Scotland. This multipurpose tug has an overall length of 16 m, moulded breadth of 5.4 m and draught of 2 m.

It is sailing to Shoreham in Sussex to begin employment with the port authority later this month. Acamar has a bollard pull of 10 tonnes and free running speed of 10 knots.

It was designed by Macduff Ship Design with a hard-chine hullform and a box skeg. It was customised to suit Shoreham Port’s busy operations schedule and narrowed to fit through lock gates.

In the engineroom there is a pair of Doosan V158 engines providing 358 kW of power at 1,800 rpm coupled to Twin Disc gearboxes with a reduction ratio of 6.10:1 driving two 1.7-m diameter propellers with Kort nozzles.  

Macduff said this tug is equipped with everything required for its multipurpose operations in a commercial port. This includes a Mampaey tow hook with 150 kN of capacity and an aft lifting gantry.

Acamar also has a 7-tonne winch for plough-dredging, a Cormach 8700 E4 marine deck crane and fire-fighting equipment.

Shoreham Port Authority will use Acamar for towing, lifting, dredging, pushing and survey work. It will work alongside Shoreham’s existing workboat Adurni to boost the harbour’s marine service capacity.

Macduff Ship Design celebrated 25 years of vessel building in May this year. It has completed pilot boats and other workboats over the past 12 months.