Orkney Marine Services

Close collaboration between leading Turkish tug building specialist, Sanmar Shipyards and world-renowned designer, Vancouver, Canada-based Robert Allan Limited, has brought instant success with the signing of a prestigious order from Orkney Islands Council’s Marine Services. Construction will soon start at Sanmar’s Altinova facility, one of the company’s two custom-built shipyards located some 75 minutes drive from Istanbul. The Orkney Islands archipelago is in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of Great Britain.

The two 32m x 13m fire-fighting omnidirectional vessels, which are provisionally being called Orkney 1 and Orkney 2 pending a public vote on their naming, will be the first two in a new series of extremely cost-effective RAstar 3200-SX tugs designated the Kocaçay series by Sanmar. They are exclusively designed, hence the SX suffix (for Sanmar eXclusive) to meet the builder’s own general requirements and the customer’s specific local needs.

Commented Naki, who moved to Vancouver some four years ago from Sanmar: “Main propulsion for each tug comprises a pair of Caterpillar 3516C diesel engines, each developing 2,350kW at 1800 rev/min, driving a Rolls Royce type US 255 P30 CP Z-drive units, with a 2,800mm diameter controllable pitch propellers in ASD configuration. This is predicted to deliver a free running speed over 13.5 knots with an expected bollard pull of up to 84 tonnes ahead. Unlike other shallow-draft designs that use a compromised hullform to achieve a reduced draft, these RAstar 3200-SX are still expected to deliver high astern bollard pulls of up to 77 tonnes. Using the latest Robert Allan Ltd escort analysis software the tugs are capable of safely escorting ships at up to and including 10 knots with predicted steering forces over 70 tonnes and braking forces of almost 120 tonnes.”