More Towlines

The Niigata engined, 50 tons bollard pull tug has been sold to SMS Ltd, based in Humberside UK

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Shortly after delivery,

Kincraig

was repainted in the orange livery of its new owners and renamed

Welshman

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Early in March the latest addition to the fleet of Belgian tug owners URS arrived in Antwerp from the Dearsan yard in Tuzla, Turkey

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Named Union Panda and built to a Robert Allan RAmpart 3200 design, the new ASD tug will shortly be joined by a sister ship, the Union Koala

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The tug is powered by two ABC 8-DZC main engines generating a total of 5,163bhp (2×1,900kW) to achieve a bollard pull of 65 tons ahead and 58 tons astern

.

Stevns Iceflower, a 5,000bhp ASD tug built by East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, Canada in 2006, is to return to Canada to be employed by Rio Tinto Alcan at La Baie, Quebec

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Managed by Nordane Shipping of Denmark, the 38

.

8m vessel recently completed a charter with Svitzer bearing the name Svitzer Njord

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After returning to Canada in March the tug was renamed Fjord Saguenay under the Canadian flag and ran trials in Halifax, Nova Scotia

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The Port of Antwerp is in the process of upgrading its tug fleet and has three new Voith tractors under construction

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A contract for construction of the three vessels was awarded to local shipbuilders and repairers SKB in 2007

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SKB, who have built tugs for the port in the past, sub-contracted the hulls for prefabrication in the Czech Republic and are fitting the vessels out in their own dry docks

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Each of the 60 ton bollard pull tugs will measure 29

.

5m in length overall and 11

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0m beam, with a draft of 5

.

39m

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In line with past practice, the tugs have been allocated the numbers 30, 31 and 32

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All three are due to be delivered by the end of the year

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During the past year the tugs in the Port Authority’s fleet carried out 22,357 towing operations, the highest number in ten years

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