TOWLINES April 2010 – by Jack Gaston

Mustang was completed by the Kooiman Shipyard in March 2009 (MJ – May 2009), A vessel of 30.8m in length, the tug is powered by Mitsubishi S12 U MPTK main engines delivering 6,080bhp to achieve a bollard pull of 82 tons. The name Mustang will be retained under the Cypriot flag and when ice conditions allow, the tug will sail for Archangel with the pontoon Litsa.

The newly formed Alp Maritime Services BV has been appointed European General Agent for Fukada Salvage & Marine Works Co. Ltd, Japan’s largest towage, salvage, heavy transport and offshore construction specialist. Alp Maritime Services was founded in Rotterdam on 1 February 2010 by Paul Mulder, Leo Leusink, Arjen de Geus, and Caroline Steenbergen, all former members of the management team of Fairmount Marine BV. The company will be active in the fields of ocean towage, heavy transport and non-conventional marine contracting.

A National Sea Towage Day is to be held at the port of Maasluis, on the New Waterway in the Netherlands on Saturday 5 June. Historic and present day vessels will be on display during the day and a tug parade is timed for 10:00 am to 12:00. Several historic tugs will be arriving from other ports and various modern sea going tugs will also put in an appearance if work allows. The nearby National Sleepvaart Museum in Maasluis will be open to the public as usual.

Five new tugs under construction at the Uzmar Shipyard in Turkey for Smit International to support a new towage contract at Gladstone in Australia have been allocated ‘Aboriginal’ names. The tugs were ordered in December 2009 and all five are being built to the Robert Allan ASD 3070E design, with delivery scheduled between June and October of this year. The completed vessels will be 30.25m in length, have main engines producing a total of 5,435bhp and a bollard pull of 70 tons. They will bear the names, Smit Koongo, Smit Yallarm, Smit Awoonga, Smit Tondoon and Smit Kullaroo.