TOWLINES

Rotterdam’s car terminal is in the Brittaniehaven, passage to which involves transiting the Caland Canal and through the Caland Bridge. Kotug’s SD Shark welcomed the Hoegh Target with a fifi monitor display and their hybrid Rotortugs RT Evolution and RT Adriaan assisted the vessel through the most difficult manoeuvres to the berth.

Hoegh Target is owned by Norwegian based Hoegh Autoliners AS, delivered in July and at 200m long and 36m wide is able to carry 8,500ceu (car equivalent units) on its fourteen decks. It is Hoegh’s first post-Panamax vessel and first of five similar vessels for the company.

London based DSB Offshore recently brokered a complicated multiple vessel tow involving seven separate units towed by two tugs from European owners. The vessels were towed from Djen Djen, Algeria to Safi Port, Morocco intended for use in a port construction project.

The 2011 built Sea Dream (63tbp), operated by Oromare completed two double tows involving a barge and a tug in one trip and a floating crane and another barge in the other. At the same time the 1988 built MTS Vengeance (30tbp) managed by MTS also carried out two passages involving a grab dredger in the first trip and a flat top barge and tug in the second.

In what will be no doubt be a significant news story for early next year, Van Wijngaarden Marine Services report that Damen Shipyard have now started construction of their new Shoalbuster 3512 to be named Noordstroom. For Damen, this will their latest and one of the largest yet in their popular shallow draft Shoalbuster range.

The 35m long vessel will have a draught of just 2.9m on a gross tonnage of 498t and include a larger bridge and extensive 134m2 working deck. Noordstroom will have a triple-screw arrangement along with other interesting features which this column looks forward to returning to when this new addition to Van Wijngaarden’s fleet takes to the water.

Thessaloniki based Gigilinis Salvage & Towage are part of the Gigilinis Shipping Group active in a broad spectrum of marine services including harbour and ocean towage, offshore services and emergency response. They recently highlighted a particular niche activity in the towing market by delivering a warship to the breaker yard, providing useful employment for tugs that are perhaps in the twilight of their career but still more than capable of showing their capability.

The task involved towing the ex-warship from Portsmouth UK to Aliaga, Turkey in a journey lasting 25 days. The tug employed was their conventional 75tbp Hellas, built by Matsuura Higashino in 1975 as the Nego Prince and subsequently the Petrola’s Seamaster 20 before transferring to Hellas.

By Peter Barker