SAAM Towage is expanding its fleet in Ecuador by acquiring a 25.3-m harbour tug from Med Marine in Turkey
MED-A2575-class, 2016-built tugboat Efesan Port will be renamed SAAM Tarqui and mobilised from Med Marine’s fleet in Turkey to South America. It was built to a RAmparts 2500W design by Canadian naval architects Robert Allan as a compact tugboat with 70 tonnes of bollard pull.
“We are very glad to introduce SAAM Tarqui to our operations, especially following its combination of size and power,” said SAAM technical director Pablo E Caceres.
“This allows us to satisfy our clients’ safety matrixes in terms of pushing/pulling capabilities while delivering a versatile tugboat that could adjust to restrictive spaces of operation.”
SAAM Tarqui has a moulded beam of 12 m and draught of 3.45 m. It is classed by RINA as a tug with unrestricted navigation, unmanned engineroom and fire-fighting FiFi-E class. Its two Wärtsilä W9L20 engines develop a total output of 3,600 kW at 1,000 rpm each, with a free sailing speed of 12 knots driving two Kongsberg US 205 CP azimuthing thrusters with controllable pitch 240-cm propellers.
In the engineroom are two FFS fire-fighting pumps which can deliver 2.710 m3/hr and two Perkins 4.4TW2GM gensets. These provide, combined, 168 kW of electrical power for vessel services, including the deck machinery. Machinery includes a DMT anchor towing winch on the fore deck, a DMT aft towing winch and a Mampaey quick-release, disc-type towing hook.
TOS Ship Delivery is sailing SAAM Tarqui from Turkey to Ecuador. TOS sales manager Rolf Kievits said on 6 January 2021, this tug was halfway on this voyage.
Med Marine sales manager Melis Üçüncü said this vessel sale followed delivery of a MED-A2360 tugboat, SAAM Itza, to SAAM Guatemala in 2020.
Ecuador’s main import and export centre is Port of Guayaquil. Other large ports are in Esmeraldas, Bolivar, Bahia de Caraquez, Manta, San Lorenzo, La Libertad and Salinas.
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