Sanmar launches new ice-breaking tug for Scandinavian owner

This 32-m long, ice-class tug will be used for harbour towage in a Finnish port and for ice management in the northern Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia.

Sanmar built this azimuth stern drive (ASD) tug to Robert Allan’s TundRA 3200 design at its Altinova Shipyard in Turkey. It launched the first of two similar tugs it is building for Alfons Håkans in early December 2020.

Sanmar said it has a strengthened hull to meet Ice Class 1A rules and should achieve 65 tonnes of bollard pull. It will be classed by Bureau Veritas as an escort tug with Ice Class 1A hull for Baltic service and a green passport from the EU.

Inside these two TundRA 3200 tugs will be a pair of Caterpillar 3512C main engines, each developing 2,000 kW of power at 1,600 rpm coupled to Kongsberg Z-drive thrusters type US 255P30, fitted with 260-cm diameter controllable-pitch propellers in nozzles. Both tugs will have two Caterpillar C7.1 generator sets each rated at 118 kW.

On the deck there will be a Palfinger hydraulic telescopic knuckle-boom crane. The structure will be reinforced for future installation of a 60-tonne crane and there will be deck space for a container and other small cargo transfers.

Alfons Håkans has also made progress on introducing the world’s first detachable ice-breaking bow on a tug, attaching a motorised ice-breaking bow on to its tug Calypso in Finland.

Alfons Håkans’ Captain Kimmo Lehto said Calypso was on its way to Lake Saimaa in eastern Finland for trials, including ice-breaking testing.

ILS Ship Design & Engineering designed this removable icebreaker bow with a maximum length of 25.3 m, moulded breadth of 12.6 m and moulded depth of 3.4 m.

It will be able to break 80 cm of level ice at 2 knots. If the speed is increased to 6 knots, the tug-bow combination can break 40 cm of level ice in inland waterways.