Damen delivers an ASD trio in two weeks

The tugs were ordered by the Maltese company Elizabeth Ltd and are being chartered to KOTUG. Both companies are part of the Kooren Maritime Services Group (KMS). Two of the tugs will be based in the port of Rotterdam and the third will enter service in the port of Hamburg.

Damen Shipyards and KOTUG have built up a good relationship over the years but this will be the time that Damen has built tugs for the KMS Group. Ard-Jan Kooren, CEO of KOTUG said, “We have long known Damen as a repair yard and now we know it as a shipyard as well. This is the first time that we have teamed up with Damen on a newbuild project. Damen has a top quality portfolio. We needed additional tugs quickly to replace a number of older tugs that we had sold and Damen had them in stock. Within two weeks, we had our tugs. The short delivery time and the quality were the key factors that persuaded us to invest in three tugs at the same time.”

Over eighty Damen ASD Tug 2810 tugs have now been built for operation in ports worldwide. The trio purchased by KMS have been supplied from stock at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania and have been constructed in accordance with Damen’s standardised shipbuilding methods and quality procedures. On delivery, the tugs can be modified to meet the customer’s specific requirements. Operating in this way enables Damen Shipyards to guarantee a fast delivery without compromising on quality.

The vessels were named SD Ranger, SD Rover and SD Rebel in preparation for the delivery voyage. Damen Services arranges transport from Galati to Rotterdam, where Damen hands over the tugs in a turnkey operation, in this case within two weeks from order confirmation

.KOTUG has offices in Rotterdam, Hamburg and Bremerhaven and is represented in the UK, Norway, Australia and Brazil. With a fleet of 30 tugs, KOTUG operates in a variety of markets, including towage in port and at sea, and in support of the salvage, offshore and dredging industries. Just like Damen, KOTUG also has an ongoing R&D programme. A major result from the work has been the development of the unique and increasingly popular Rotor Tug concept, and the recent introduction of the E-KOTUG Hybrid, RT Adriaan, as described earlier in this feature.

As mentioned earlier, three of KOTUG’s older vessels have just been sold. After 24 years of excellent service in the ports of Rotterdam and Bremerhaven, the tractor tugs ZP Montelena and ZP Chandon recently left the port for the last time, bound for Panama and their new owners Groupo Boluda. The third tug, ZP Caymus, has also been sold to Boluda and is expected to leave Bremerhaven bound for Valencia. They are vessels of 28.85m in length powered by MAN B&W diesels generating a total of 3,740 bhp coupled to fully azimuthing Aquamaster propulsion units, giving the tugs a bollard pull of 52 tonnes. All three were part of a series of six very similar azimuthing tractor tugs built between 1980 and 1984 by Valley Shipbuilding Inc of Brownsville; Texas, USA. They were purchased in 1987 and have been used very successfully by KOTUG and its associates in Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Hamburg and elsewhere.