Year of renewal for Alfons Håkans

For Alfons Håkans, the year 2018 was described as a “time of renewal” which saw the arrival of three new tugs into the fleet along with the disposal of three vessels that no longer matched the demands of its clients.

Operations in severe ice conditions are an important part of Håkans work and reflected in the make-up of its fleet, particularly where support is provided to Baltic Sea states including Finland, Sweden and Estonia in open-sea icebreaking. Part of the company’s modernisation plans for 2019 include collaborating with various maritime operators and the training of its crews and staff to ensure high quality operations as well as development of the fleet itself.

As well as the aforementioned requirement to respond to harsh winter conditions, Håkans, like other operators is experiencing new demands on its fleet from the growing size of assisted vessels and stricter timetables. To meet these changing demands, in late December 2018 it acquired the brand new 60tbp Damen ASD 3010 ICE Pallas to strengthen its fleet in the area of the Gulf of Finland. Earlier the formerly Swedish-owned 38tbp conventional icebreaking tug Hurtig joined the fleet and increased capacity on the west coast at Uusikaupunki. A further notable addition in 2018 was the former Turkish, Med Marine ASD Osman Gazi, renamed Poseidon by Håkans and stationed in Estonia.

Two disposals of particular interest were that of a previous Pallas and the Helios. They are two of six Voith tractor tugs built for Smit in the mid-1970s originally named Varnebank and Kwintebank respectively and the former has now returned to Dutch ownership reverting to its original name with the final disposal being the 1958-built conventional tug Fram, sold on to Sweden. The 1995-built, 110tbp anchor-handling, Zeus of Finland has renewed its contract with Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency to serve Finnish winter navigation for the next seven years.

Finally, modifications to the ASD tug Calypso were finished according to agreement, the acquisition of the ‘removable-bow’ to take place later this year. Calypso is meanwhile operating normal harbour assistance and icebreaking duties providing experience of how the tug operates in ice conditions with open propellers.

By Peter Barker