TOWLINES August 2010 - by Jack Gaston
‘Ievoli Black’ arrives off the Dutch coast to take up Coastguard duties. Photo: Jan Plug
The Dutch Coast Guard has now taken the offshore tug supply vessel ‘Ievoli Black’ on contract as the full time replacement for the emergency towing vessel ‘Waker’.
Ievoli Black was completed in 2010 and is a vessel of 70m in length, 10,000 bhp and 120 tons bollard pull. Now under the Dutch flag, the vessel is on station at Den Helder, managed by Svitzer and owned by Marinavi SpA of Naples. It is understood that this vessel may also be renamed Waker . The original Waker was seriously damaged by fire in September 2009, was declared a constructive total loss and has now been scrapped.
Svitzer took over the towage contract at the NuStar Energy facility in Port Tupper on the Strait of Canso, Canada on 1 August. The contract, held for many years by Atlantic Towing, was won by Svitzer via a competitive tendering process. NuStar (formerly Statia Terminals) has been operating since 1992 and provides petroleum and chemical storage. The terminal has facilities for very large tankers and operates as a transhipment point for crude oil from Newfoundland to US and Canadian ports. Svitzer Canada (Eastern Canada Towing Ltd) will station the Svitzer Bedford, Point Chebucto and Point Valiant at Point Tupper but they will also provide towage services to other clients in the area.
Growing US based Signet Maritime Corporation, a marine transportation and logistics company, has purchased the assets and operation of the Colle Towing Company. Formed in 1878, Colle Towing Company Inc of Pasacagoula, Mississippi USA provides offshore, harbour and intracoastal marine towing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The company will operate under the new name Colle Maritime Company, a Division of Signet Maritime Corporation. Signet and Colle were recently awarded a 20 contract to provide marine services to Angola LNG Supply Services (ALSS) in the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The agreement, to commence in the third quarter of 2011, includes options to extend for up to ten additional years.
Solent Towage Ltd of Southampton, a subsidiary of Norwegian operators Ostensjo Rederi AS, have taken delivery of the powerful Voith tractor tug Vortex from Astilleros Gondan. Built to the Robert Alan AWT 37/80 design, the 38.7m vessel is equipped for tanker handling, escort duties, fire fighting, pollution control and anchor handling. A pair for Wartsila main engines and Voith propulsion units give the 7,208bhp tug a bollard pull of 73 tons and a maximum speed of 14.5 knots. Vortex fitted also fitted out for other offshore services. It is hope that a detailed account of this new vessel will be possible in the near future.
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