A close look at Lomax

The tug is now employed as part of the tug fleet serving the Esso oil terminal at Fawley on Southampton Water in the UK. Maritime Journal was invited to visit the tug shortly after its arrival, to see first hand the spectacular agility and compact features of this powerful vessel.

A product of the Sanmar Denizcilik Makina shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey, the vessel was formally handed over to its owners in January of this year, prior to a lengthy, interesting and worthwhile delivery voyage. Shortly after the handover ceremony, Lomax left the Sanmar shipyard in the hands of a TOS delivery crew to pick up the hull of the X-bow offshore support vessel, Blue Guardian, from the Ukraine and tow it to Ulsteinvik in Norway. The delivery was completed successfully, in spite of some adverse weather conditions.

Lomax paused for a while in Haugesund, close to the Østensjø headquarters, prior to leaving for Southampton but was diverted on route to assist salvage specialists Titan with refloating the short sea cargo ship Danio, aground in the environmentally sensitive Farne Islands. After delays for weather, Danio was successfully refloated without damage to the ship or the environment and towed by Lomax to the Port of Blyth.

Lomax is a Sanmar Terminal class tug, an enhanced version of the Robert Allan Limited (RAL) designed RAstar 2800. The tug was built to ABS class rules with notations; A1-Towing vessel, Escort Vessel, FiFi 1, oil recovery capability class 2, AMS, ABCU, Unrestricted Service.

In spite of its relatively small size, Lomax has a bollard pull of 80 tonnes and a free running speed of 13 knots.

This extremely compact and highly manoeuvrable tug measures 28.00m in length overall, with a beam of 12.60m (both excluding fenders) and an operational draft of 5.30m. The hull-form has familiar RAL characteristics with a distinct sheer and incorporating a raised foredeck and a long central skeg extending aft from just below the bow. Lomax has an open stern, neatly faired in with a stern roller of 130 tonnes SWL.

A pair of Caterpillar 3516C main engines are installed, each developing 2,350kW at 1,800 rpm (a total of approximately 6,302 bhp). Each engine drives a Rolls-Royce US 255 CP azimuthing propulsion unit with a 2,800mm diameter four-bladed, controllable pitch propeller. The engines have box coolers and exhaust silencers fitted with spark arresters.

The spacious engine room also houses two Caterpillar C9 auxiliary generator sets rated at 150kW. Power for the towing winches is provided by electrically driven pumps. Each main engines drives a FFS fire pump rated at 1,400 cu/m/hr to supply the two FFS water/foam monitors and the self-protection spray system for the external FiFi1 system.

The all important towing gear includes two hydraulically powered Rolls-Royce single drum winches, one on the foredeck and one aft. Forward is a render/recover escort winch with a 50 tonnes line pull, 80 tonnes render capacity up to 19m/min or 8 tonnes pull at 60m/min, and a maximum brake load of 200 tonnes. The winch is capable of dynamic self tensioning up to 80 tonnes for escort operations and also incorporates cable lifters for the vessel’s anchors. The single drum carries a high performance synthetic towline, deployed via an ‘A’ shaped staple with a highly polished stainless steel inner surface.

The aft winch has a maximum line pull of approximately 30 tonnes and maximum brake load of 170 tonnes. A 650m towline of 44mm diameter is deployed via high capacity spooling gear. Both winches have line tension and length indication in the wheelhouse.

Triplex towing pins are positioned forward of the stern roller and a small, split drum, tugger winch is located on the starboard side of the winch fairlead. Also provided is a Palfinger PK 15.500 knuckle boom crane with a capacity of one tonne at 12m radius.

Lomax has fully air conditioned accommodation fitted out to the owner’s exceptionally high standard for a total of six persons. Two single berth cabins for the Captain and Chief Engineer are situated at main deck level, along with a comfortable mess room and well fitted galley. Two double berth cabins, a laundry, galley store and sanitary spaces are below deck. All sanitary spaces have heated floors.

The wheelhouse has a large, ‘split’ control console with the usual Captains chair mounted on a central trackway. A particularly comprehensive electronics outfit is installed and includes GMDSS to area A3, Fleet 250, remotely operated VHF radios, radar, GPS, chart plotter, DGPS compass, magnetic compass, auto pilot, echo sounder, AIS, speed log, bridge watch alarm, and an independent general alarm system, all from such leading manufacturers as Furuno, Jotron, Alphatron and Kongsberg.

Technical specification:

Length overall: 28.00m

Beam: 12.60m

Draft: 5.30m

Power: 2 Caterpillar 3516C

Bollard pull: 80 tonnes

Speed: 13 knots