TOWLINES
Ocean Sun, one of the two remaining Ocean class tugs being built for Crowley Maritime, was delivered on 9 May by Bollinger Marine Fabricators. The remaining vessel, Ocean Sky, is undergoing trials at the time of writing.This second pair of sophisticated 10,880 bhp deepsea tugs is slightly longer than the two original vessels, Ocean Wave and Ocean Wind, delivered in 2012. At 47.55m in length the later tugs have additional thrusters and equipment in order to fit them for service with DP-2 dynamic positioning systems. Ocean Wave and Ocean Wind have DP-1 systems and both vessels have been busy in support of energy projects in the US Gulf for a major customer in the global oil and gas industry.
Rolls-Royce plc has signed a memorandum of understanding with Drydocks World Dubai to provide systems for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) powered tugs for the Middle East market. The tugs, to be designed by the Drydocks World in-house design team, will incorporate a range of power and propulsion equipment from Rolls-Royce, including Bergen medium speed gas engines. Khamis Juma Buamim, chairman of Drydocks World and Maritime World said: “We are at the threshold of a new era in environment management for maritime sustainable development. Drydocks World seeks to take a leadership role in implementing green technology solutions and is developing a new product, the ‘Green Tug’, which is an LNG powered tug that will comply with new emission control regulations.”
The MTS Group, based on the southwest coast of the UK, has announced important additions to its extensive fleet of tugs and workboats. A new twin screw Damen Stan Tug 2909 of 67 tonnes bollard pull has been purchased from stock in the Damen Galati shipyard and will be extensively customised in the Netherlands. The tug will be named MTS Vanquish and the changes to be made include the addition of a full push bow, 350 bhp bow thruster, Karmoy Forks and pins and tugger winches. A second addition to the fleet is the MTS Taska 2, a shallow draft 12m road transportable workboat.
The twin screw tug Salus, operated by Harms Bergung Transport & Heavy Lift, of Hamburg, has been sold to Force Shipping & Towage Services of Istanbul. Originally named Balau, the 31m tug was built in the Netherlands in 1976 for use by Smit International (Antilles) NV Willemstad. The tug returned to Smit Harbour Towage Rotterdam in 1988 and was sold to Harms in 2001 and renamed Salus. Powered by two Stork Werkspoor diesels developing 2,435bhp, the tug has a bollard pull of 37 tonnes.
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