Boluda Towage, the towing division of Spain’s Boluda Corporación Marítima, has successfully closed the acquisition of the Dutch company Kotug Smit Towage. The transaction strengthens Boluda’s position as leading operator in Europe,
Connecting heaving lines at sea is one of the most critical parts of day-to-day towage operations, however it presents significant risk to crews, particularly from a center lead forward position where tugs
JUNE 20, 2017 — Rolls-Royce and global towage operator Svitzer have successfully demonstrated the world’s first remotely operated commercial vessel in Copenhagen harbor, Denmark. Earlier this year, one of Svitzer’s tugs, the
JUNE 9, 2017 — Rotterdam headquartered towage operator KOTUG International BV reports that its Zero-Emission Heat Recycling System, a cost-effective and sustainable system to store and regenerate heat on tugboats, has been
MAY 9, 2017 — Saam Smit Towage is adding a new ASD (Azimuth Stern Drive) 2411 tug from Damen Shipyards, for operations in the port of Colón, Panama. Built for stock at
MAY 19, 2016—The first of four Ulstein SX157 design ultra-long distance towing and anchor handling vessels was named ALP Striker in a shipyard ceremony last week. The four vessels, each with a
Additionally, Multraship has also agreed a deal with Damen for a new state-of-the-art ASD 3212 tug as part of its planned fleet expansion
Construction of the CRTs will begin immediately. The hulls of the vessels will be built by German shipbuilder Theodor Buschmann GmbH in Hamburg, with final outfitting carried out by Damen Maaskant Shipyards in Stellendam, the Netherlands. Delivery of the Bureau Veritas-classed vessels is scheduled for first-quarter 2017.
The Carrousel towing system consists of a towing point on a straightforward steel ring, freely rotating around the superstructure of the tug. According to Novatug, a towing load simply cannot capsize a Carrousel tug and the tug’s own hull profile can safely be used for generating braking and/or steering forces, based on the lateral resistance of the hull through the water and given the kinetic energy present in the moving tow and/or the current.
In the CRT, this towing system is combined with the advantages of the RAVE Tug (Robert Allan Ltd. – Voith Escort) jointly developed by naval architectural consultancy Robert Allan Ltd. and Voith Turbo Marine. The unique characteristic of the concept is the longitudinal alignment of two Voith drives, delivering very precise and improved force generation characteristics.
The CRTs have an overall length of 32 m, and a bollard pull of minimum 70 tonnes. Propulsion is via two Voith thruster units and two ABC main engines of 2,650 kW operating at 1,000 rpm. Free running speed is over 14 knots at 5,300 kW.
The CRT’s combination of low operational costs, speed of action and enhanced control over the tow can provide major advantages over conventional tugs, for example by widening or even removing tidal and/or weather windows for certain ports.
Novatug will offer the Carrousel Rave tugs on the basis of long-term bareboat charters, basically a financial or operational lease construction, an arrangement proven in other capital-intensive industries such as aviation. Its customer for the first two units is its parent, Multraship.
Leendert Muller, managing director of Multraship, says, “Safety is always our overriding objective, and that it is why we have opted wholeheartedly to produce the Novatug CRT. This new tug design, for the first time, eliminates what has always been the most significant threat to safety in towing – the risk of capsizing under a tow load. The benefits in terms of efficiency and flexibility, meanwhile, are also enormous.”
Carrousel Rave Tug
ASD TUG
The new state-of-the-art ASD 3212 tug acquired by Multraship — the Dutch-flag, LR-registered Multratug 31 — was built at Damen Song Cam, Vietnam. A sister vessel to Multratugs 19, 29 and 30, it will operate mainly in the Western Scheldt area. It has a maximum bollard pull of 83.2 tonnes and a maximum speed of 15 knots.
The 453 gt vessel is powered by two Caterpillar 3516C engines and has two Rolls Royce Azimuth thrusters and a 2,800 mm-diameter controllable pitch propeller.The vessel’s deck layout features a hydraulically driven escort double drum winch forward and single drum aft, and a 25 mt deck crane. There are two one-man cabins, four two-man cabins, a mess room and galley.
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JUNE 19, 2015 — Towage operator Kotug yesterday named its latest Damen Shipyards ART 80-32 Hybrid Rotortug during the annual Herring Party it hosts in the Port of Bremerhaven, Germany. The Lady
SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 — Bremen, Germany, based port and offshore towage provider URAG (Unterweser Reederei GmbH), has placed an order with Damen Shipyards for two Damen ASD 2411 tugs. This contract follows