A new tug for Port Otago, a southern port of New Zealand, was launched via synchrolift at the Damen Group's Song Thu yard (Da Nang, Vietnam) in late March.
Fitted out with a wet berth at the yard, the newbuild is expected to commence sea trials in the last week of May. Upon successful completion of trials, the vessel will then be sailed to Port Chalmers by a delivery team organised by Damen.
Having been ordered in mid-2013, the tug is consequently expected to arrive at Otago in the early part of July 2014. The vessel is valued at NZ$11 million (US$9.4 million).
Christened 'Taiaroa', the newbuild is a standard design azimuthing stern drive (ASD) 2411 tug. She will have a bollard pull of 68 tonnes.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket said the 24-metre-long and 11-metre-wide vessel forms part of his port's preparations to handle the anticipated larger-generation of containership callers.
"We have the 'Rangi' and 'Karetai' which were built in the 1970s and the new tug will replace those," he said.
Understood to weigh 250 tonnes, the 'Taiaroa' will provide an additional 12 tonnes bollard pull capability compared to the other vessel in the Port's fleet, the ten-year-old 'Otago'.
Iain MacIntyre