TOWLINES
Eight crew members were rescued from the Greek registered tug Christos XXII on 13 January after it was damaged by the ship it was towing whilst trying to anchor a mile off Hopes Nose in Torbay UK. Two lifeboats, two naval ships and the tug MTS Vulcan responded immediately and joined later by the salvage tugs Brent and Hellas. Swift action prevented Christos XXII from sinking and it was subsequently towed into Portland by the Dutch tug Brent, where temporary repairs and preservation work was carried out in the engine room. The tug was towing the decommissioned vessel Emsstrom from Germany to Turkey for scrap when the incident occurred. The Emsstrom sank soon after the collision but posed no threat of pollution.
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is investigating the tragic loss of a crew member from the 11m tug Endurance in gale force winds off the Sussex coast on 5 February 2013. Endurance, with two persons on board, was on route from Dover to Brighton with a 60ft motor cruiser under tow when the accident happened. The tow was lost and the crewman was trying to retrieve it when he fell overboard. Local lifeboats conducted a lengthy search of the area but found no trace of the 55 year old man believed to be from Kent. His 37 year old colleague was uninjured. The tug is reported to be owned by Thames & Medway Marine Services Ltd
The Ocean Sky, the third in a series of four ‘state of the art’ deepsea tugs for US Crowley Maritime, has been launched at the Bollinger Marine Fabricators yard in Amelia, Louisiana. This vessel, and sister tug Ocean Sun, are slightly larger than the Ocean Wave and Ocean Wind already in service. (See MJ – Sept 2012) The main difference in the 10,880 bhp twin-screw tugs is the dynamic positioning system is uprated to DP-2, requiring one additional thruster. Ocean Sky and Ocean Sun are scheduled to enter service in February and April of this year.
Australian operator Rhumb Maritime, with HQ in Melbourne, is continuing to invest in new inshore towage assets including tugs and barges. Rhum Melba, a customised Damen StanTug 1606, was delivered to the company in December 2012 by Damen Shipyards Changde. A sister vessel, Rhum Matilda, was delivered in March the same year. Both tugs are 16.75m in length and powered by two Caterpillar C18 TA/B main engines, developing a total of 1,200 bhp to achieve a bollard pull of 16.6 tonnes. The owners also have on order a Damen StanTug 1907 with 20 tonnes bollard pull and expect to contract for three more vessels for delivery in 2013.
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