Double delivery ends buoyant year for Sanmar

Demonstrating that power doesn’t have to be compromised in modern compact tug designs, the 24.4m LOA, 80 ton bollard pull Titan (built under the yard name of Boğaçay LXXII) has joined Croatia’s Jadranski Pomorski Servis, part of the Italian Scafi shipping group.

Titan completes a two-vessel Sanmar order for the owner, both examples of Canadian naval architect Robert Allan’s RAmparts 2400SX MkII design. It will join its sister vessel Moretto (built as Boğaçay LVII), operating in the ports of Rijeka and Zadar, the Omišalj oil terminal, terminals in Plomin and Raša and the LNG terminal on the island of Krk.

Sanmar says the vessel is an example of the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly version of Sanmar’s popular and continually evolving Boğaçay class of tugs adding: “The RAmparts MkII design has been hailed as the blueprint for the most versatile, multi-purpose type of tug in use today.”

It is Sanmar’s best-selling series of tugs, with around 80 examples either delivered or listed with building slots in the shipyard’s busy schedule since the first, Zeycan Y, entered service for Gemport Gemlik in 2013.

The list of those who have demonstrated faith in the RAmparts design is a who’s-who of international towage operators, and while many are Europe based, examples of the marque, which vary in size from 22m to 35m LOA and 60tbp to 80tbp, can be found further afield in Canada, Sri Lanka, South America, the Middle East and Panama, among others.

Capable of working both within a port and beyond its seaward limits, Titan offers “more powerful engines and larger twin Z-drives than similar sized tugs”, and along with ship-handling duties, the class is widely used for coastal towing, escort and other general-purpose activities.

Ice class for Finland

The second delivery reported by Sanmar concerns a different marque of tug from the stable of Robert Allan “uniquely designed” for operation in the challenging waters of the northern Baltic Sea.

Delivered to Finland-head-quartered operator Alfons Håkans the vessel, named Ajax, is a RAL-designed TundRA 2600, ice-class 1A tug of 25.8m LOA, beam 11.8m and navigational draught 5.05m. Its duties include escort, ship assist, ice-breaking and ice management and open sea towing.

Ajax is of an ASD configuration powered by twin Caterpillar 3512E main engines, the “E” series along with Caterpillar’s “SCR” system, resulting in an environmentally friendly tug complying with classification society ABS’s NOx notation and IMO Tier III emissions standards. Performance figures include 60tbp (over the stern) and free running speed 12kn.

Capable of towing over both the bow for ship assist duties and the stern for more open sea towing, deck equipment includes heavy-duty winches. A foldable knuckle-boom crane is provided and the vessel’s tank capacities include 75.2m3 of fuel oil.

“Like all TundRA series tugs, Ajax combines good sea-keeping and relatively high free-running speed in open water with substantial escort performance, and at the same time has an effective ice-breaking capability,” says Sanmar.

Alfons Håkans was formed in 1945 and in 2004 expanded to provide additional services across the Gulf of Finland in Estonia.

As well as conventional towing, salvage, ice-breaking and heavy transport services it also provides shipyard services at the Suomenlinna Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.

Alfons Håkans is a long-term Sanmar customer, a notable milestone in their relationship being in 2021, when the Turkish shipbuilder delivered Helio and Selene, 31.5m LOA, 67tbp ice-class 1AS ASD tugs. The pair are registered in Tallinn, Estonia and were the first ice-breaking escort tugs made for a private entity in Finland.

Alfons Håkans has an interesting and diverse fleet list of around 40 tugs from an equally diverse range of shipyards, both within the immediate region and including Ukraine and the UK, also as far away as Japan.

Its capabilities for providing transport services are enhanced by a fleet of around 13 various types of barges and an equal number of workboats, including a 10-person hovercraft.