Towlines
Three Voith tractor tugs that have served the UK towage industry for many decades have been transferred to Venezuela, under the auspices of Svitzer Americas. All three were built by McTay Marine at Bromborough on the Mersey in 1984-5, are powered by Ruston diesels and fitted for fire fighting. The sister ships TH Scimitar and HT Cutlass were originally built for the Dover Harbour Board as the Deft and Dexterous, tugs of 2 800 bhp with a bollard pull of 29 tonnes. They were sold to Howard Smith for use on the Thames in 2000 as the Shorne and Cobham respectively. The third tug Svitzer Anglia was built in 1985 for the Alexandra Towing company. It is a tug of 3,444 bhp with a bollard pull of 38.5 tonnes. All three eventually came under the Svitzer flag following various amalgamations and redeployments. The tugs finally left Britain aboard the heavy lift ship HHL Venice in mid-July.
On 24 June 2013 the shareholders of Seacontractors and IPS announced that they have concluded a strategic partnership and are implementing the integration of their manpower services. It includes combining recruiting, crewing, contracting and pay-rolling of maritime and offshore personnel worldwide. By combining the manpower services, a reinforced business model is created that paves the way for the next step in the growth path of the companies. All manpower supply business will be carried out under the IPS ‘Powerful People’ label, whilst the marine contracting and brokerage activities will remain using the Seacontractors branding. All existing Seacontractors and IPS offices will continue to participate in a new holding company named Centurion. “This partnership between Seacontractors and IPS is an important step in developing greater integration of our back office systems and further broadening of our value chain involvement”, says Xander Schanssema, executive director of Seacontractors.
Østensjø Rederi has announced that Statoil has declared their contract option for Østensjø’s tugs Ajax, Velox, Audax and mooring boats Rex and Fox at the Statoil Sture Terminal. This confirms that the present arrangement remains firm until 1 December 2014. Østensjø Rederi is responsible for mooring operations at the oil and gas terminals, including the operation of tugs, mooring launches and supplying shore based personnel for mooring/line handling. The company also provides ‘loading master’ functions and jetty administration for the terminals. The tugs and ancillary crafts are currently in service at oil and gas terminals in the UK, Ireland, and Norway
In early August, Damen Shipyards delivered the tugs Multratug 26 and Multratug 27 to Multraship Towage & Salvage BV – Terneuzen. The Damen ASD Tugs 2810, fully equipped for fire fighting, were ordered in April of this year and completed from ‘stock’ at Damen Shipyard Galati, Romania. The 28.67m long tugs are powered by two Caterpillar 3516C TA HD main engines developing a total of 3,730 kW (5,000 bhp), giving them a bollard pull of 60.1 tonnes and top speed of 13.6 knots. Within hours of their arrival in the Schelde, the tugs were immediately put into service.
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