Floating turbines and giant container ships keeping Boluda busy

Boluda’s ASD tugs Croisic (60tbp) and VB Ouragan (70tbp) recently manoeuvred France’s first floating wind turbine within Saint Nazaire harbour prior to its christening ceremony the following day. The towing industry is familiar with moving odd-shaped and outsized objects and the Floatgen floating turbine fitted this description with dimensions of 36m by 36m, a depth of 7.5m and weight of 5,000 tons.

France’s offshore wind programme has big ambitions and Boluda has been investing in a fleet of multifunctional tugs capable of answering the high demands of the country’s marine renewable energy industry. Its onshore teams along with the tugs’ crews themselves faced technical as well as marine challenges in planning the manoeuvre for which it was necessary to adapt the usual towing procedures. The company is conducting research to better understand the ideal solutions to satisfy requirements of the marine renewable industry and it is reported the challenge was met ‘with flawless ease.’

Earlier, Boluda France reported its role in assisting the 400m long, 20,170teu container ship MOL Triumph in the port of Le Havre. Three of its tugs with a combined bollard pull of 195 tonnes: VB Deauville, VB Barfleur and VB Tornade were assigned the task of towing the vessel into port. At the time, MOL Triumph was the world’s largest container ship but has quickly been overtaken by a succession of marginally larger vessels.

Boluda Corporación Maritima has ten tugs stationed at Le Havre, two of which are permanently located at the Port 2000 container terminal. With an overall fleet of more than 100 tugs and launches it carries out more than 53,000 towage operations annually at 16 ports and terminals.

By Peter Barker