TOWLINES
A tragic explosion and fire aboard the Svitzer tug A Deebel on 29 April claimed the lives of seven people and injured four others in Qatar. Only one person escaped unhurt. It is understood that the Al Deebel was operating at the Ras Laffan LNG complex some 30 to 35 mile off the north coast of Qatar. Early reports indicate that the tug had sailed to conduct maintenance work on a single buoy mooring (SBM) with 12 persons onboard, two of whom were contractors. In spite of the dramatic explosion and fire on board, the tug remained afloat and was eventually towed to port. Al Deebel is an ASD tug of 33.6m and 55 tonnes bollard pull owned by Svitzer Middle East. At the time of writing no further details were available.
Netherlands towage and heavy lift specialists Muller-Dordrecht has added the former Polish tug Tryton to its fleet. The tug was built in Spain in 2002 by Astilleros Armon as the Dhoce for Spanish owners Remolques Unidos SA of Santander. In 2004 it was sold to Polish operators ZUS – Szczecin. An ASD tug of 30m in length overall, powered by Caterpillar diesels generating over 4,000 bhp, the vessel has a bollard pull of 50 tonnes and is equipped for shiphandling and coastal towing. This new addition to the Muller-Dordrecht fleet has been renamed En Avant (as yet without the usual numerical suffix) and will boost the bollard pull available considerably.
Neptune Shipyard BV of Aalst in the Netherlands has delivered the Maastroom, the very first example of its new Euro Multipurpose tug 2300, to Wijngaarden Marine Services BV of Sliedrecht. This new addition to the Wijngaarden fleet measures 23.0m in length overall with a beam of 8.00m and has a minimum draft of 2.25m. It is powered by a pair of Caterpillar C18 main engines rated at 485 bhp each. Maastroom has a bollard pull of 15 tonnes and is very well equipped, with a towing and anchorhandling winch, stern roller, tugger winch and a HLRM 65-4S crane.
The UNV shipyard in Valencia, part of the Boluda Group, is well advanced in the construction of four new Voith tractors ordered by the Port of Antwerp Authority in July 2010. Built to a design produced by consultants Sener and UNV, the tugs will have a total length of 29.50m, a beam of 12.50m, depth of 4.50m, and draught of 3.00m. All four will be classed Bureau Veritas 1, Hull, Mach Tug, Coastal Area, Aut – UMS. With a bollard pull of 70 tonnes, the tugs will reinforce the Port Authority fleet, providing towage services inside the enclosed dock systems. The fourth vessel is scheduled for launch in July of this year.
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