Sanmar delivers quartet of different tugs
Sanmar has delivered four tugs of quite different design types to owners in Italy, France and Norway.
The deliveries have been made after the shipbuilder delivered an all-electric tug to its own fleet in Turkey.
Tug development, both in the area of actual vessel configuration and especially in recent times, type of propulsion and choice of fuel means owners have some complex choices to make when considering new tonnage. This latest tranche of deliveries demonstrates however that there is still demand for the various different options on offer.
“High performance at a competitive price” is how Sanmar describes the smallest vessel in this batch, delivered by a heavy-lift vessel to its new customer CCI Bayonne Pays Basque, which manages the French Port of Bayonne.
The tug, named Göksu V, is based on Robert Allan Ltd’s RAscal 1500 ASD design, a compact vessel of just 3m navigational draught and 16 tons bollard pull.
The marque is specifically intended for ship handling in modern, smaller harbours such as Bayonne, which saw a 12.2% increase in traffic in 2023.
The tug has a forward winch for standard ship-handling duties and is also capable of towing over the stern via a tunnel running beneath the wheelhouse. Göksu V carries 20m3 of fuel and has a speed of 10kn and accommodation for up to four persons.
“Göksu V is part of a series of tugs which could almost have been designed with needs of clients such as CCI Bayonne Pays Basque in mind,” said Rüçhan Çıvgın, commercial director, Sanmar Shipyards. “Compact and robust, it benefits from great manoeuvrability. We are delighted that the wide range of tugs that we offer has once again resulted in us being able to meet the specific needs of a first-time customer.”
Two other conventionally fuelled (described as environmentally friendly) RAL-designed ASD tugs have been delivered to returning customer Rimorchiatori Mediterranei Group, the largest tug operator in the Mediterranean.
Both are examples of RAL’s RAmparts 2400-SX MkII design, named Ortigia and Sanvitale and built as Boğaçay LX and LXIV respectively. Ortigia has joined Rimorchiatori’s operations at Port of Syracuse in Sicily and it is reported Sanvitale will initially also work in Sicily.
While based on the same design, the pair have different performance figures.
Ortigia is powered by twin Tier III compliant Caterpillar 3512E main engines, each developing 1,901kW, the vessel delivering at least 60 tons bollard pull. Sanvitale is slightly more powerful, delivering a bollard pull of at least 70 tons, also via Tier III compliant main engines.
Both vessels have an LOA of 24.4m on a beam of 12m and navigational draught of approximately 5.45m with accommodation provided for up to seven persons.
All-electric
Respected Dutch towing industry historians have reminded us that hybrid tugs are not new, previous generations seeing sail-assisted steamers and even FP (family-powered) inland tugs, where people including youngsters helped pull tugs along from the river bank.
Modern hybrids typically involve various forms of diesel-electric propulsion and the end of that particular road has now perhaps been reached, with increasing attention being paid to all-electric-tugs, tailor-made for specific port operations.
RAL’s ElectRA series battery-electric powered tugs are among those now experiencing order success in the global market, and Sanmar has delivered an ElectRA 2200SX vessel to “environmentally-conscious” Norwegian tug operator Buksér og Berging.
The new vessel named BB Electra is the eighth Sanmar-built tug for Buksér og Berging and will be based in Port of Oslo.
BB Electra has 1,718kW of battery power and delivers a bollard pull of 45 tons ahead and speed 11.8kn.
A Caterpillar C32 Tier III compliant switchable marine generator provides 940ekW at 1,800rpm and the vessel’s deck equipment includes a DMT TW-E250kN foredeck winch, Data Hidrolik DTH 50-120P tow hook and DTC 4000 EP-L rope reel along with a Palfinger PK11001MC deck crane.
The owner’s previous Sanmar-built tugs include the escort sister-tugs Bamse and Bob along with Borgøy and Bokn, the world’s first two purely LNG-powered tugs.
“Buksér og Berging, quite rightly, has very exacting demands when it comes to protecting the environment that they work in and we are more than happy to provide a new generation of environmentally friendly tugboats that more than meet their requirements,” said Çıvgın. “We are also always delighted when an existing client comes back for more.”
