Damen delivers two for Italy

The deliveries, announced within a week of each other involves one of their larger products, an ASD 3212 named Luisa Neri for Fratelli Neri S.p.A. and a smaller ASD 2810 with the name Musone for Corima, part of the Ravenna-based Gesmar Group.

Luisa Neri is the company’s first newbuild Damen tug and was handed over at Damen Maaskant Shipyards Stellendam in the Netherlands just five months after the contract was placed. Built for stock, final outfitting was at Stellandam including installation of deck crane, fifi1 standard fire-fighting and oil recovery equipment and other Italian flag requirements; Luisa Neri is classed to RINA rules.

Power is supplied by two Caterpillar 3516C HD+ TA/D main engines developing 5,050bkW (6,772bhp) in total driving two Rolls-Royce US255 P30 CP azimuth thrusters with 2,800mm diameter CP propellers. Auxiliary equipment includes two Caterpillar C6.6 TA, 230/400V gensets and performance figures are quoted as 80.8tbp ahead and a free running speed of 14.3 knots.

Damen Marine Components supplied the double-drum render-recovery winch forward and a single-drum towing winch aft. The forward winch holds 200m of Dyneema line on each drum while the aft winch has 750m of steel wire. A Mampaey SWL 100 ton towing hook is also fitted aft.

Luisa Neri will operate at Livorno and Andrea Trevisan, Damen Regional Sales manager comments: “With some tight turns, Livorno is well known for being quite a challenging harbour to operate in.” adding: “The Luisa Neri has the power – just over 80 tonnes of bollard pull – the manoeuvrability and the right equipment to handle these difficult escorting duties though.”

The second delivery to Italian owners sees the Damen ASD 2810 Musone for family-owned Gesmar Group. Largest towage operator in the Adriatic Sea, Gesmar have operations at eight Italian ports and provide towing, escorting, safety and fire-fighting duties at a number of offshore oil terminals. BV classed Musone is now operational in the Port of Ancona providing support services at two oil terminals and an SPM buoy for large tankers.

Basic specification includes LOA 28.67m on a beam of 10.43m and draught aft of 4.86m; tank capacities include 88.5m3 of fuel oil and 16.6m3 fresh water. Caterpillar 3516C TA HD/C main engines provide a total output of 3,730bkW (5,000bhp) to Rolls-Royce US205 azimuth thrusters. Two Caterpillar C4.4 TA 230/400V gensets are included and performance figures are quoted as 61tbp ahead and speed 13.9 knots.

Unlike the Luisa Neri, the ASD 2810 for Gesmar has a Mampaey towing hook for towing over the stern. The foredeck however is home to a hydraulically-driven, two-speed, anchor/towing winch with split drum and warping head. Fire-fighting capability is provided by two 1,200 m3/hr monitors.

By Peter Barker