TUGS & SALVAGE

TOWLINES June 2010 – by Jack Gaston

16 years ago

Kompania di Tou Korsou (KTK) took delivery of the ‘Orca VI’, a powerful Damen Stan Tug 4011 built by PT Dumas in Surabaya, Indonesia on 2 April. With its bollard pull of 70 tons the new vessel will give an important boost to KTK’s capabilities in the international towing and salvage business. The 40.70m twin screw tug is powered by Caterpillar 3516 B TA/HDC main engines delivering 5,000bhp. After an impressive demonstration of its manoeuvrability, ‘Orca VI’ sailed for Panama.

'Orca VI' shows off in Indonesia prior to sailing to Panama.

Two ‘M-class’ tugs from Svitzer Scandinavia have been shipped to Svitzer Australia to operate in Newcastle NSW. Svitzer Menja and Svitzer Mercur will be renamed Svitzer Myall and Svitzer Maitland respectively. The 70 tons bollard pull tugs are part of a large series of vessels built at Baltija Shipyard, Klaipeda. Both tugs were loaded aboard the German heavylift carrier Annegret and are expected to be operating in their new home port in July. The tugs will be replaced in Scandinavia the two latest newbuildings from Nordane Shipping, Stevns Icequeen and the Stevns Iceflower, on bareboat charter.

US operator Colle Maritime Company, a joint venture between Signet Maritime Corporation and Colle Towing Company, has been awarded a 20 year contract to provide marine support services to Angola LNG Supply Services (ALSS) in the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Signet/Colle joint venture will construct two Robert Allan designed RAstar 3100 Class terminal support/escort tugs to support the contract. The 80 tons bollard pull, high performance tugs will be constructed by Trinity Offshore in Gulfport, Mississippi. This pair of RAstar 3100 vessels, were designed exclusively for the Signet-Colle project, and will measure 30.5m long, 12.2m beam and have a moulded depth of 5.5m.

The French Piriou shipyard at Concarneau in Brittany has been awarded a contract to build four tugs for Algeria, valued at some €40m. A bollard pull of 72 tons and a maximum speed of 13 knots has been specified from the 32m long, 6,400bhp tugs. Delivery is scheduled for late 2011 and spring 2012, with one tug going to the port of Alger, two for Arzew and one for Skiida.

Seacontractors of Flushing have purchased the Shoalbuster 2709 Bever from Viegers & Son Tugboat Services. Bever was built in 2007 and is a vessel of 27.19m in length, with Caterpillar main engines of 3,000bhp and a bollard pull of 40.2 tons. The tug has been renamed Sea Golf and chartered by the Danish offshore company E2Sea to work with the jack-up rig Sea Jack on the Greater Gabbard windfarm project. A new Shoalbuster 3612, named Bever, will be delivered to Viegers at the end of June.

The Strategic Marine shipyard in Vung Tau City, Vietnam is building Voith water tractors to a standard Voith Class C (compact) design under an agreement negotiated with Voith Turbo Marine in 2009. The first example of this standard tractor tug design is under construction for the harbour authority of Napier in New Zealand. Only 24m in length, the tug will be powered by two 2,040 kW main engines driving Voith Schneider 28R5/234-2 propellers. A Voith ‘Turbo Fin’ will be installed to enhance manoeuvrability and a bollard pull of 55 tons has been predicted.