TOWLINES
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Capt Geoff Yell who passed away on 13 December after a long and debilitating illness. Geoff was well known in the marine civil engineering and dredging industry around the coasts of the UK for many years. He was best known as owner and skipper of the tug Goliath, a former shiphandling tug he purchased from the Manchester Ship Canal Co in 1986. The 29.6m twin screw tug of 1,298 bhp was built in Appledore in 1956 and never intended to operate outside the canal. Geoff converted Goliath into a fully seagoing tug, progressively adding a towing winch, bow thruster, fire monitors and many other ‘useful’ items. In their heyday Geoff and the Goliath became synonymous with the transportation of rock for beach replenishment and coastal defences around the UK, working with Stema Shipping and other major contractors. Goliath remains in operation as part of the fleet of Griffin Towage.
The ABR Company Ltd moved to new offices, effective from 2 January 2014. ABR are organisers of the International Tug, Salvage & OSV Convention, the Tugnology Conference, and publishers of the International Tug & OSV magazine. The move coincides with the company’s 20th Anniversary. The new address is: The ABR Company Ltd, ABR House, Prospect Place, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 8QA. All other contact details, telephone, fax, email and web site remain the same.
Boskalis has announced in a press release that the tug Smit Elbe, operating in the port of Rotterdam, has become the first vessel of its type in the Netherlands to be fuelled with Shell GTL. GTL, which stands for gas-to-liquids, is a liquid fuel made from natural gas converted into synthetic diesel. The fuel produces far less nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter emissions and black smoke than regular diesel. Smit Elbe will run on GTL for around six months to determine whether the fuel is able to effect a sizeable reduction in emissions without the engines being adapted. During this pilot study onboard emission measurements will be carried out at regular intervals. The study is consistent with Boskalis energy and carbon reduction activities in the Netherlands and may prove interesting in relation to the emission reduction targets for the port of Rotterdam.
Smit Japan, one of the two twin screw shiphandling tugs remaining in the Boskalis/Smit Rotterdam fleet, has been sold to Finnish tugowners RaumaCataOy and renamed Leonardo. The 29m long tug was built in the Netherlands1986 by Barkmyer and fitted with Werkspoor main engines developing a total of 2,400 bhp to achieve a bollard pull of 36 tonnes. The remaining sister, Smit Polen, remains unsold.
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