UK Based Hepworth Busy with Holyhead Orders

Afon Cymyran is sister ship to the ‘Afon Cadnant, completed by the Dutch yard of Sepers last year (See Maritime Journal – September 2007). This second 35m tug is scheduled for delivery in May.In the meantime, construction of a 25m shallow draft, twin screw vessel to a new design has already started. The hull and other major steelwork have been subcontracted to Aveco in Middlesborough. Once the hull arrives in the Humber it will be fitted out by Hepworth in readiness for delivery towards the end of the year. This latest tug is the first of a new class, built entirely to an in-house Holyhead design, but one that will inevitably benefit from an impressive pedigree inherited from several generations of new craft introduced in recent years.

The new vessel will be built to meet the requirements of Lloyds +100 A1 TUG Ice Class 1B and measure 25m in length (without fenders), 9.5m moulded breadth and have a minimum operating draft of 1.75 to1.85m. Two Cummins KTA 38-M2 diesels of 1,050 bhp each will provide the power to drive a pair of fixed pitch propellers rotating within fixed nozzles for an estimated bollard pull of 25 tons.

Deck machinery will include a 40 ton split drum anchor handling and towing winch, hydraulic towing pins, a stern roller and a 90 t/m crane. As with all of the recent additions to the Holyhead fleet, the new tug will have extensive air conditioned and heated accommodation for up to 12 persons in six cabins.

Holyhead also have number of other vessels on order, including a standard design Neptune multi-purpose pontoon type work vessel, the ‘Dulas Island’, due for delivery at the end of March.

Two wind farm access catamarans are under construction at South Boats on the Isle of Wight, with the first scheduled for completion at much the same time.