Great Lakes Shipyard to build two Damen Stan Tugs

Under the license, signed at this week's Workboat Show, Great Lakes Shipyard will receive full construction, design and engineering support from Damen, which will also provide expert assistance based on it experience with construction of nearly two hundred Damen designed vessels of other types in the U.S. over the years.

The Stan Tugs 1907 were chosen based on Damen's reputation for quality and following fact-finding visits made by the management of the Great Lakes Towing Company to Damen in the Netherlands that demonstrated that the Stan Tug 1907 exactly matched the Towing Company's needs.

In addition to the Ice Class specification, the tugs will also be treated with special, high endurance paint capable of withstanding the abrasion that comes with moving through ice.

The partnership with Damen provides Great Lakes Shipyard with a portfolio of proven vessel designs for U.S. customers. Most of the designs have been refined through the progression of multiple builds.

Damen vessels built under license in the U.S. since the mid-1990s include 55 Fast Crew Supplier 1204 class, built at Horizon Boat Builders and Trinity Shipyard, 25 Fast Crew Supplier 1605 class vessels built by Blount Boats and eighty 26-m patrol boats for the U.S. Coast Guard, built by Bollinger Shipyards which is also the builder of the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters (based on Damen’s 47 m Stan Patrol 4708) for which 58 licenses have been sold.