Wärtsilä and Robert Allan Ltd to cooperate – by Jack Gaston

Vancouver based Robert Allan Ltd. is a leading specialist designer of tugs and other harbour and coastal vessels. Both parties see market opportunities for advanced tug designs, utilising improved hull forms and new fully integrated power and propulsion technologies. The aim of the cooperation agreement will be to jointly develop advanced, environmentally sound solutions, resulting in a range of optimised tug designs to be supplied by Wärtsilä for the world market.

Both Wärtsilä and Robert Allan Ltd. have developed their own plans for modernising and improving tug design, and see significant advantages in coordinating their R&D activities in a strategic cooperation. Evolving emissions regulations will inevitably require the redesign of many vessel types. This is especially true for vessels operating in the proximity of large population centres, as is the case with tugs in ports.

Mr Wilco van der Linden, director of business development at Wärtsilä Ship Power said, ‘The economic viability of advanced technical solutions can only come about through an integrated approach. By combining our companies’ complementary expertise in ship design and integrated technologies, we believe that such viable solutions can be attained.

‘Robert Allan Ltd will provide tug design expertise, and in particular the development of advanced, high performance hull forms for new designs that will embody Wärtsilä’s advanced technical power, energy conservation and environmental solutions. These complementary capabilities will provide a valuable service to the international tug industry’, added Mr Robert G. Allan, executive chairman of Robert Allan Ltd.