TOWLINES

The deepsea tug Fairmount Alpine has been contracted by Smit Salvage to provide escort services to an unnamed bulk carrier. The ship had suffered structural damage while in Brazil and initially the 205 tonnes bollard pull tug was tasked to stand-by the ship and assist the salvage team with some cargo runs. After almost two months, Fairmount Alpine was requested to escort the bulk carrier during its trans-Atlantic voyage from Brazil to Walvis Bay, Namibia. The stand-by and escort services provided for Smit was the third salvage operation in a row for the Dutch flagged tug. Earlier, Fairmount Alpine assisted in the salvage of a drifting container vessel off the coast of Cuba and later assisted a salvage team in refloating a 30,000 dwt cargo vessel in the approaches to Puerto Cortes, Honduras.

Invader, a 41.5m deepsea tug owned by Crowley Maritime in the USA, was damaged when the floating drydock holding the vessel sank at the Vigor Marine Shipyard in Everett, Washington state. A 200 foot section of the dock sank over a weekend leaving the dock and the tug partially submerged on its starboard side. It is understood that the tug had an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 gallons of diesel fuel onboard but a boom was deployed and there was little pollution. Invader is one of a very large class of highly successful 7,200 horsepower, 75 tonnes bollard pull, twin screw tugs built for Crowley between 1974 and 1977 and subsequently updated in an extensive midlife refurbishment programme. It is known that the vessel suffered a severe damage to the wheelhouse and superstructure but as yet there has been no decision on it’s future.

Østensjø Rederi of Haugesund in Norway has placed an order with the specialist shipbuilders Sanmar in Turkey for the construction of a 28m long, 80 tonnes bollard pull ASD tug. The chosen design is marketed as the high-performance Sanmar Terminal, based of the Robert Allan RAstar 2800-E class and very similar to the last two vessels recently delivered to Seaspan in Vancouver. Caterpillar 3512 C main engines will be installed, each rated 2,350 kW at 1,800 rpm and coupled to Rolls-Royce US 255 CP units with 2.8m diameter propellers. Fire fighting equipment will be installed to FiFi 1 standard and the vessels will be fitted out to the high standards associated with both the client and shipyard. Delivery is scheduled for the end of this year. This will be the second tug to be built for the Norwegian tug owners, the first being the ASD tug Vivax in 2008.