Hakans Moves into Estonia

Trading as Alfons Hakans OU the company will concentrate on providing harbour towage and icebreaking services in the Estonian ports of Muuga, Tallinn and Paldiski in the Gulf of Finland.

Managing Director Mr Arvo Veskimets has set up an office in the World Trade Center building in Tallinn and operates with support from the Finnish head office in Turku.

From the second half of August four tugs have been stationed in the area: One azimuthing stern drive tug, one tractor tug and two ‘Combi’ tugs. Each of them is a modern shiphandling tug of about 35 tons bollard pull, meeting the most demanding requirements of ship owners using the above ports.

If necessary, further backup is available from the 30 strong Hakans tug fleet in Finland.

To ensure reliable towage services in Estonia, Hakans has purchased two additional harbour tugs from the Netherlands, one new and one secondhand. The new vessel is the azimuthing stern drive vessel Calypso delivered in July of this year by Damen Shipyards of Gorinchem.

Calypso is a Damen ASD Tug 2509 built to Lloyds Register 100 A1 Tug – Ice Class 1A standards and registered in Tallinn under the Estonian flag. A vessel of 25.86m in length, with a beam of 8.94m, the vessel has a draft of 4.35m. Two Caterpillar 3512B TA/B main engines generate a total of 3150bhp to drive a pair of Rolls Royce US 205 fully azimuthing propulsion units. This arrangement gives the tug a bollard pull of 36 tonnes and free running speed of 12.1 knots.

A Rolls Royce towing winch, with a line pull of 10 tonnes and maximum brake holding load of 80 tonnes, is fitted in the bow and a Mampaey quick release towing hook at the stern.

The second vessel from Holland is the 35 tonnes bollard pull Voith tractor Varnebank , a tug employed by Smit International in the port of Rotterdam until July of this year. Now renamed Pallas andregistered in Tallin the tug will also operate under the Estonian flag. Sister-ship to Pallas the Kwintebank was purchased by Hakans earlier in the year and now works in Helsinki bearing the new name Helios .To guarantee flexibility and availability of tugs, Alfons Hakans OU also have available two tugs from the Finnish fleet available where required in the Estonian ports in the Gulf of Finland. This is intended to enhance flexibility and ensure that the most suitable tugs are available on every job. The two selected ‘Combi’ tugs are the 3910bhp Neptun and the 3685 bhp Protector , both single screw ice-breaking vessels