TOWLINES

Prior to it being taken over by Spanish tug owner Boluda, Kotug Smit Towage announced its response to demands for higher powered tug at the two UK ports. Re-positioning of the ASD 2810 hybrid tug Adventure to Southampton eases the issue of cleaner air in the port city and mirrors Kotug Smit’s similar earlier deployment of the hybrid tug RT Evolution to the Thames. Allocation of the Smit Elbe to Liverpool sees this 60tbp tug working alongside sister tugs Smit Donau and Smit Barbados all operating with the same sailing profile.

SMS Towage are based in Hull and recently one of its tugs sailed to the Bristol Channel to assist in an operation that takes freight movement from the road to sea.The 40tbp Guardsman, built in Japan in 1991 was deployed to the EDF Energy Hinkley Point site where one of the first in a new generation of nuclear power stations is under construction. Guardsman assisted with the first vessel to berth at Hinckley Point Jetty as aggregates begin to be moved by sea rather than by road.

Production of the Mediterranean’s first Tier III compliant tug is now underway at Drydocks World. The 27m tractor tug is to be operated by P&O Reyser in the Port of Barcelona and will be in operation before the MARPOL Annex VI regulations come into force mid-2020. Drydocks World’s approach is to produce customised solutions to meet the new rules including ballast water management and scrubber system retrofits aimed at pollution reduction, improved personnel working space and noise reduction.

A strange coincidence has seen two boyhood friends appointed independently as executive directors at tug builder Sanmar Shipyards. First meeting while eleven years old both were selected for a training programme in preparation for entrance exams at foreign high schools in Turkey. Kerim Kazgan favoured the American School but went to a French one whilst Hakki Cek who had hoped to attend a French school went to an American establishment. Kerim graduated in Business Administration and travelled to the US while Hakki graduated in Economics and remained in Europe, both working at different companies that were absorbed into Ernst & Young. Fate has now determined that the two can renew their boyhood friendship by joining the Sanmar family.