Terasea Falcon enters service

All four tugs have been built by the Universal Shipbuilding Corporation of Japan, to the highest standards, at their Keihin Shipyard. Owned by Singapore based Terasea, the new tugs are the result of more than three decades of industry experience. The company, along with its partners POSH, aims to set a new standard of excellence in international long distance towing, positioning and salvage.

Known as the ‘Raptor’ class, Terasea Falcon and its sister ships Terasea Hawk, Eagle and Osprey, still under construction, will be the most advanced in their class. The tugs are classed ABS +A1 Towing vessel, AH/Offshore support vessel, Fire Fighting vessel class 1, +AMS, Oil recovery capability, DP1 ready.

Terasea Falcon measures 75.3m in length overall, breadth moulded 18.0m, depth moulded 8.1m, design draft 6.0m and maximum draft 6.6m. The tug has a bollard pull of 205 tonnes and a maximum speed of 14.6 knots.

The hull design is that of a twin screw deepsea tug/support vessel with a deep bulbous bow and a wide skeg aft to accommodate a stern thruster. Dedicated tank spaces are designed to accommodate 2,200m3 of heavy fuel oil (including settling and service tanks), 300m3 of marine gasoil, oil recovery (inclusive of fuel capacity),300M3 of fresh water and 800m3 of ballast/drill water. A ballast water treatment plant of the ultra-violet/filtration type is installed. The long afterdeck has 450m2 of free space , with a maximum deck loading of 10 tonnes/m2.

Terasea Falcon is powered by a pair of Wartsila 12V32 main engines generating a total of 16,300 bhp. Power is transmitted to a pair of four blade controllable pitch propellers via a long shaft line and reduction gearboxes at the aft end. The propellers rotate within fixed nozzles supporting high lift flap rudders. Two transverse thrusters are installed, a bow thruster with 12 tonnes of thrust and a stern unit of 10 tonnes.

Electrical power onboard is supplied by two shaft generators of 1,200kW capacity each, driven via the main reduction gearboxes, two Caterpilar 400kW auxiliary generators engines and one Caterpillar 60kW Emergency generator.

The all important towing winch installed in this series of new tugs is described as an electro/hydraulic Fukushima DDW 350H-4M double drum ‘waterfall’ style machine. Both drums have a maximum brake holding load of 450 tonnes and a maximum line pull of 350 tonnes, both at the first layer. Each winch drum is equipped with spooling gear and can accept a 1,900m towline (or work wire) of 76mm diameter steel wire rope. Two powered reels are provided, capable of storing spare towlings of the same length and dimensions.

A single Karm Fork with a safe working load of 450 tonnes is installed on the work deck aft, along with two 200 SWL Karmoy tow pins.Two tugger winches with a 20 tonne line pull at 15m/min are also provided, along with two capstans and a hydraulically operated ‘knuckle boom’ deck crane with a maximum load of 5 tonnes at 15m radius.

Terasea Falcon has a FiFi 1 standard fire fighting system with two remotely operated ‘single barrel’ water/foam monitors mounted high above the exhaust uptakes. Each monitor is rated at 1,200 m3/hr and a self protection spray system, all supplied by two 1,760 m3/hr pumps driven by the main engines. A 20m3 capacity tank houses foam compound and a tank of 18m3 stores chemical dispersant for anti-pollution purposes. The later is sprayed using a pair of 6m long aluminium spray booms that can be rigged on either side of the vessel.

Accommodation is provided for for a crew of up to 26 persons and includes a single cabin and stateroom each for the Captain and Chief Engineer, plus fourteen single and five two-berth cabins.

Immediately after trials and a christening ceremony, Terasea Falcon left Japan to sail to Dalian in China to tow a very large floating dock measuring 430m x 84m to Goseong (Jinhae) in Korea. With the floating dock safely delivered, the tug was expected to be prepared for its next towage operation with a massive 720 man accommodation barge from Huludao, China.

The joint venture company POSH Terasea Pte Ltd will eventually operate all four of Terasea’s Raptor class tugs along with five specialised anchor handlers of between 2,000 and 13,500 bhp from the POSH fleet. With this merger, POSH Terasea will operate the largest and youngest fleet of vessels available in the ocean towage market.

Technical specification:

Length overall: 75.30m

Beam (moulded): 18.00m

Draft (maximum): 6.60m

Power: 2 Wartsila 12v32

Bollard pull: 205 tonnes

Speed: 14.6 knots