Powerful package for Ice Class 1A tug

In 2009 Silverburn built a pair of 42m LOA, 12.5m beam Ice Class 1B tugs. These were each powered by three 1,700 hp Cummins KTA50-M2 engines to deliver 50 tonness of bollard pull.

Following on the success of these vessels, the company had designed a larger 49.6m LOA, 15.8m beam Ice Class 1A anchor handling tug. This larger tug has a draft of 3.5m for seagoing operations that can be adjusted to only 2.5m to allow operation in very shallow waters of the Northern Caspian Sea.

Powered by two 2,200 hp Cummins QSK60-M Tier 2 engines, the 4,400 hp tug also delivers a 50 tonnes bollard pull, equal to the two earlier 5,100 hp vessels. The engines turn through Reintjes gears to four blade CP propellers in nozzles

Named the Arctic, the new vessel was, like the 2009-built Tarpan and Tur, also built at a Turkish yard, this time the Sefine Shipyard. Design work for such an advanced and complex tug included tank model testing at Aker Arctic to affirm, prior to construction, that the hull form was capable of performing to Finnish and Swedish Ice Class 1A Super standards. The tug can operate in ice up to 80cm thick.

In addition to the 60 litre Cummins main engines, the new tug has two Cummins KTA19-Cps generator sets providing electrical power to, in addition to ship needs, the electro-hydraulic cranes and winches. The harbour genset is a Cummins 6CT-UCM and emergency power is from a Cummins 6C-CS genset. All gensets are fitted with Newage alternators, produced by Cummins Generator Technologies.

Two 650 kW fire-fighting pumps for the vessel’s Fi-Fi-1 system are each powered by a clutch connected PTO to the front of the main engines.

While operating in the Caspian Sea, service and parts support will be provided by the Cummins service locations in Kazakhstan and Russia.

The Arctic’s full Class is: BV HULL MACH TUG FiFi I AUT-UMS Iceclass 1A Unrestricted Navigation