The fleet is now reported to be complete for the foreseeable future and the total bollard pull now available from the three Rotor Tugs and two ASDs is in excess of 320 tons.

The purchase of three ASD tugs from Med Marine is a departure for Kotug and in the words of Ard-Jan Kooren, the decision to buy Turkish was made on the back of Med Marine's reputation for the high quality of workmanship and technology available in their shipyards. The third ASD tug SD Gironde, is scheduled for delivery at the end of this month but where this vessel is to be deployed had not been confirmed at the time of writing.

The design for this new trio, reported to originate from a designer in Singapore, is that of a well equipped shiphandling tug capable of undertaking coastal and deep sea towage operations when required. Facilities provided include provision of a full waterborne fire fighting (FiFi I) capability and some salvage equipment.

SD Seine and its sister ships have an overall length of 32m, with a beam of 10.5m, a draft of 4.30m and are listed at 389 gross tonnes. All three are classed by Bureau Veritas;

BV 1 Hull Mach, salvage tug, FiFi 1, AUT, UMS. The hull configuration is quite conventional, with a semi-raised foredeck and large central skeg just forward of the propulsion units, both features likely to enhance the vessels' performance at sea. Internal tanks can accommodate a massive 200 tons of fuel oil, 33 tons of fresh water, 60 tons of water ballast and 17 tons of fire fighting foam compound.

The towing gear installed is equally impressive. A single drum winch on the foredeck houses a 200m steel wire towline of 48mm diameter for shiphandling and a double drum winch aft has 600m of the same material on each drum for towing at sea.

Two Wartsila 9L20 main engines generating a total of 4,680bhp drive a pair of Schottel SRP 1215 CP propulsion units with controllable pitch propellers to produce a bollard pull of 60 tons and maximum speed of 13 knots.

A neat, well designed, wheelhouse is located above the single storey superstructure and houses a comprehensive outfit of navigational and communications equipment suitable for operation in GMDSS sea area A3. Accommodation includes two single berth cabins and two double cabins for crew, and an additional 'salvage crew' cabin suitable for four persons.

In the meantime Kooren Shipbuilding and Trading BV, the construction and sales arm of Kotug, is expecting the second pair of Rotor Tug RT60 vessels (MJ - November 2005) to be completed by the ASL yard in Singapore within the next few weeks. Both vessels, RT Anthonie and RT Zoe, are currently being fitted out and are likely to be deployed by Kotug in Bremerhaven. There is also the very real probability that an additional four RT-80 Rotor Tugs will be ordered in the near future.