European Tugowners Association meets in Lisbon

The Association represents over 80 members from 20 countries operating more than 700 tugs throughout Europe. With 100 attendees, this year’s meeting was very well supported, demonstrating the strength and vitality of the organisation.

This year’s main topic was Safety. The ever increasing size of ships continues to require tug owners to renew and strengthen their tug fleets and towage capabilities. Harbour tugs with 5,000 or even 7,000 PS are common today in the bigger European ports. However, the question is, how do safety standards keep pace with increases in ship size? Can ships’ bollards and leads withstand today’s tug forces? Are ships’ hulls constructed sufficiently strongly to accept the kinds of forces exerted by the latest generation of tug?

Equally, the high minimum speeds of new containerships, 9 to 11 knots at ‘Dead Slow Ahead’, are a real safety risk. Such high minimum speeds pose a threat to tugs and their crews whilst attempting to safely establish towing connections. These and other safety related topics were intensively discussed. In this regard, the European Tugowners Association has teamed up and formed a working group with the European Maritime Pilots Association (EMPA), as harbour pilots are encountering similar challenges. The working group will extend its findings to the international classification societies, shipyards, ship designers and maritime insurers.

Lisbon is the base for the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), an institution which provides technical and practical support to European member states in case of maritime accidents such as major oil spills. Following such accidents, tugs have a vital role to play in preventing further damage to the environment. EMSA presented a paper explaining the work of the agency and detailed their latest developments.

This year the Association also had a change in chairmanship. Charo Coll (Boluda, Spain) relinquished the chairmanship and in turn Joerg Mainzer, managing director of Fairplay Towage, Hamburg was elected. As deputy chairman, members appointed Richard Knight, chairman of the J.P.Knight Group in the United Kingdom.