Innovative tug designs are improving performance when towing tankers and helping assist them at terminals
In Q4 2018, Kotug Smit chartered Damen Shipyard’s first reversed stern drive (RSD) tug, Innovation, for towage operations in Rotterdam. This tug design combines elements of azimuth stern drive (ASD) and tractor tugs and can operate equally well in fore and aft towage.
Innovation was built by Damen to an RSD 2513 design, featuring a patented twin-fin skeg and the ability to tow ships ahead or astern. This 25-m tug has a bollard pull of 75 tonnes ahead and 71 tonnes astern. It has a 13 m beam and 5.5 m draught and a maximum speed ahead of 13 knots.
A Kotug Smit manager confirmed that this tug was chartered-in for at least one year and that there was a purchase option. Damen has also built a second RSD 2513 design tug - Bis Viridis - with propulsion that is compliant with IMO Tier III requirements. It is currently in a test period for the Port of Antwerp in Belgium.
"Escort tug technology will take a further step forward in 2019 when the world’s most powerful hybrid-powered tug enters service in Sweden"
Damen says it can also build a version with hybrid propulsion and has a fully-engineered and class-approved design for an RSD 2513 tug that could be fuelled by compressed natural gas.
Escort tug technology will take a further step forward in 2019 when the world’s most powerful hybrid-powered tug enters service in Sweden. Gondan Shipyard is building an icebreaking escort tug for the Port of Luleå at its facilities in Figueras, Spain.
The bulk of this tug was launched in October at the shipyard. It was built to a Robert Allan RAL TundRA 3600-H design and to Lloyd’s Register class, with a hull structure that exceeds Finnish-Swedish ice class rules. When the tug is delivered in Q2 2019, it will incorporate Wärtsilä’s HYTug hybrid power systems and be capable of breaking 1 m of ice at a speed of up to 3 knots, with a bollard pull of around 100 tonnes. Port of Luleå will use this tug for ice management, escort, ship-assist, coastal towing, fire-fighting and navigation-aiding services.
Another ice-class tug will be delivered for Norwegian operations in 2019. Sanmar is building a low-emission escort tug that can operate in light ice and slush conditions for Buksér og Berging.
This azimuthing tractor tug will be built in Turkey to a Robert Allan TRAktor 3000 design, with forward-mounted Z-drives and engines that comply with IMO Tier III emissions requirements. It will be built to ABS classification with full Fifi1 and escort notation.
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