Quiet Spanish Tractors for Israel

A recent delivery from their substantial order book was a pair of Voith tractors for the Ports & Railways Authority of Israel. Built to a successful, well-established design, special emphasis was placed in reducing noise levels in the cabins, mess room and bridge to below 65dB.

Named Amatzia II and Shimshon, the vessels are 29.50m in length overall, with a beam of 11m, a depth of 4m and gross tonnage of 363grt. The hull design incorporates a semi-raised forecastle and the typical rounded stern and skeg associated with this type of tractor tug. Two Caterpillar 3606 DITA main engines producing a total of 5,500bhp power a pair of Voith Schneider 28GII/210 cycloidal propulsion units. On trials this propulsion system gave the vessels a maximum bollard pull of 54.3 tonnes and a free running speed of 13.4 knots.

Towing equipment comprises a hydraulically powered single drum winch on the afterdeck, carrying 350m of 44mm diameter steel wire towline, and the normal ‘staple’ type fairlead. Both vessels are equipped for fire fighting to FiFi 1 standards with two water/ foam monitors mounted on the wheelhouse roof and a water spray self protection system. The fire fighting system is supplied by two identical, 1,500 m 3/hr, fire-pumps driven by the main engines.

Union Naval Valencia, member of the Boluda Group, currently has sixteen tugs in their order book, including two 30.5m azimuthing stern drive tugs of 5,500bhp for Mexico and a further pair for Italian clients.

Four conventional single screw vessels of 28m and 1,840bhp, with controllable pitch propellers, are under construction for Algeria.

Eight more 29.5m Voith tractors are listed, six for Spanish operators and two for Italy.

With the exception of one vessel, all of the tugs mentioned will be delivered by the end of this year.