TOWLINES

The Ocean Challenger is no stranger to Irish waters having previously been stationed in County Cork, under the name Thrax on contract at the Whiddy oil terminal providing escort and berthing services for visiting tankers.

The Norwegian-built multipurpose tug has a bollard pull of 62t and is classed to fifi1 standard. Two 225t brake load winches forward and a similar winch aft make it particularly suitable for salvage work and it was involved recently with recovery of an Irish coastguard rescue helicopter which crashed off the coast of Mayo with the tragic loss of all on board.

In another sign of the global development of alternative-fuelled tugs, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has ordered Japan’s first dual-fuel LNG tug.

The tug is being built by Kanagawa Dockyard with dual-fuel engines supplied by Yanmar. It is due in service in 2019 and expected to spur initial development of LNG fuel supply systems for vessels in Osaka Bay and Seto Inland Sea. It is also an element of MOL’s ‘Ishin Next – MOL Smart Ship Project’ with knowledge and expertise from the tug’s operation fed back to various types of LNG-fuelled ships including environmentally-friendly ferries.

Papendrecht the Netherlands-based Veth Propulsion has reported the signing of an agreement to supply Veth propulsors for a new harbour tug to be built in St Louis Missouri.

The deal was sealed at the Inland Marine Expo in St Louis with Barbour JB Shipyard and the tug’s owner Southern Illinois Transfer. Also involved in the signing was Tim Batten, Twin Disc director of global marine sales; Twin Disc is distributor for Veth Propulsion in the US (exclusive of the Gulf coast region).

The tug will be 68’ in length with a beam of 28’ and powered by twin 750hp Cummins diesels with Veth contributing VZ-700 Z-drives. The owner’s positive experiences with Twin Disc gave it the confidence to specify Veth propulsors the company stating: ‘… we’re certain they wouldn’t associate their name with an inferior Z-drive.’

Finally, still in the US it is sad to report the loss of a tug belonging to Crosby Tugs in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana with the loss of one crew member.

There are few details of the circumstances of the sinking of 1978-built Crosby Commander but thankfully three crewmembers were rescued from a liferaft. An extensive search involving: fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters; three Coast Guard vessels; four other vessels and two Crosby tugs was called off after 98 hours in an operation covering 3,753 square nautical miles. This magazine’s thoughts are with the family and friends of the missing crewmember.

By Peter Barker