Fairstar transport a whole fleet of tugs to Venezuela

The first 16 vessels have already been delivered aboard the company’s semi-submersible heavy lift ship Fjell. A further 26 tugs are now on route aboard a similar ship, the Fjord, and due to arrive in September.

All 42 tugs are conventional twin screw harbour and coastal tugs with bollard pulls in the order of 20 to 30 tons, constructed at Malaysian shipyards in Miri, Sibu and Sandakan between 2008 and 2011. Reports suggest that the purchase and transportation of the total package of vessels was organised by Brumby Shipholding SA of Panama. It is likely that the tugs will be used to fulfil an urgent need for more modern vessels for barge handling and general towage duties in Lake Maricaibo. All of the tugs had been renamed, 29 bear the name Brumby plus a serial number and the remainder Torrente plus a serial number.

Fairstar’s most experienced project engineer, Hylke van den Berg, recently returned from Singapore where he worked closely with the crews of Fjell and Fjord loading all 42 individual tugs on the ships for the journey from Singapore to Venezuela. He commented, “No one has ever taken on the complexity of loading so many individual floating objects onto a semi-submersible ship before. The forces that we need to manage in any submerging operation are powerful. Maintaining a stable loading environment while the ship is below water and then loading 26 tugs one by one onto the Fjord and 16 tugs onto the Fjell required constant communication during the load outs. Critical adjustments were regularly needed to maintain control and stability. We have been able to develop a lot of trust within our team at Fairstar and it really helps that we all speak the same language. We were all relieved when the last tug was secure and the decks of the Fjell and Fjord were dry.”