TOWLINES

Robert Allan Ltd and Rotortug (KST) BV have signed a ‘Cooperative Agreementfor Future Rotor Tug Development’. The agreement was announced and signed on 30 May at the International Tug, Salvage and OSV Conference in Barcelona. Under this agreement, Robert Allan Ltd will now act as the exclusive designer for all Rotor Tugs, and covers the continuous technical development for all existing and future Rotor Tug designs. The Rotor Tug line will be added to Robert Allan Ltd’s design portfolio, enabling the designers to offer their worldwide clientele a complete range of the best advanced tug designs available, including ASD, VSP and now the Rotor Tug option according to the specific needs of any port or terminal application. This cooperation has been developed through the recent joint experience of the two companies in the design of two major Advanced Rotor Tugs, the ART 110-37 and the latest ART 85-35, which was the subject of a major paper presented at the ITS 2012 conference.

Following the acquisition in 2011 by Lamnalco of Smit’s terminal and anchorhandling tug supply activities, Smit Lamnalco has been launched as a distinct trading brand. Smit Lamnalco chief executive Daan Koornneef said, “The new identity has been adopted to reflect the extent of the turnkey services offered by the expanded group across the oil and gas sectors.” Smit Lamnalco owns, operates and crews one of the most modern terminal and ship-to-ship transfer auxiliary fleets in the world, as well as delivering a full range of dive support services. Its interests span pilot boats, mooring boats, utility craft and high performance tugs. “Combined, Smit Lamnalco operates over 50 terminal contracts, employs close to 3,000 staff on around 180 vessels and is active across 30 countries, added Mr. Koornneef. The merged operation has been restructured around four key regions that reflect the historical focus of both entities but also point towards Smit Lamnalco’s future ambitions: Africa, excluding Nigeria and the Red Sea; Nigeria; Russia, the Caspian Sea, South East Asia and Australasia; and The Middle East, India, Pakistan, and Red Sea ports.

While delivering a brand new tug for Svitzer, ship delivery specialist Redwijs has broken its own distance record. A Redwijs crew left the Qingdao shipyard in China on 11 February on the brand new tug Svitzer Nereid (MJ – March 2012), bound for the UK port of Middlesborough. In close consultation with the owners, and for the safety of crew and tug, the decision was made to sail the alternative route via the Cape of Good Hope. On the last leg of the voyage, Svitzer Nereid was ordered to change its destination to Progreso in Mexico, where it arrived on 16 May after a safe and successful delivery voyage of 17,358 nautical miles, record for Redwijs. Svitzer Nereid was required to reinforce the fleet managed by Svitzer Americas in the Latin American and Caribbean market. Other newbuildings recently deployed in the area include the Svitzer Kestrel, the Svitzer Owl, and the former Scandinavian tug Egil.