Welcome to Tug and Salvage Week!

Tug, tugs and ever more tugs keep sailing across these pages from and to practically everywhere in the world. This month’s Tug and Salvage Week is typical with tugs from China, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Russia, France, Turkey and the United States going to owners who will operate them anywhere from El Salvador to Tianjin.

They are of several styles and sizes for a wide variety of roles. One is a fully electric “plug-in” harbour tug for China. That 36-metre tug has a bollard pull of 48 tonnes, an endurance of eight hours, and can be fully recharged in two. It could well represent the future of harbour tugs.

Tugs • Towboats • Pusher Tugs • ATBs • Salvage • Autonomy • Marine Environment

There is even a charming little tug of 15 tonnes bollard pull built by Piriou for its own charming little home port of Concarneau in Brittany.

They are invariably smart, well thought-out and ever more environmentally friendly and economical. And, in the never-ending quest for smaller crews, the day of the true, rather than experimental, unmanned tug appears to be not far off.

They and plenty more will be featured in Baird Maritime this week.

Vessel Reviews:

• Saam Acaxual & Saam Centzunat – Turkish-built tug pair take on terminal support duties in El Salvador
  
• Jin Gang Lun 31 & Jin Gang Lun 32 – Towing and pilotage tugs built for rough waters off China’s Tianjin Port
  
• VB Flandes & VB Samba – Boluda newbuilds to serve Port of Zeebrugge under five-year concession
• Pomor – Icebreaking and escort tug for Rosmorport’s Arkhangelsk branch
• Rachael Allen – Low-emission workhorses for Foss’ northern California operations
• Yungang Diantuo No 1 – China’s first all-electric tug boasts 5,000kWh installed power
• Le Moros – Compact harbour tug for Concarneau, France
  

News and Gear:

• Sicily towage company orders two Turkish-built IMO Tier III tugs
• GEAR | HaiSea Marine electric tugs to be fitted with 5,288kWh battery packs
• GEAR | Suderman and Young’s newest tugs to be fitted with Schottel propellers, monitoring systems
• Boxship catches fire following container loss off British Columbia
• Turkey’s Yalova Pilotaj takes delivery of locally-built tug
• Kotug newbuilds awarded charter by BHP in Western Australia
• Boluda Towage expands operations in Mauritania
• Kotug to start towage operations in Gabon
• US Navy awards contract for two more Navajo-class salvage ships
• Keppel SMIT Towage tug to receive ABS remote control navigation notation

Recent Important Features:

COLUMN | Everything you have ever lived for is in jeopardy! [Tug Times]

– “Let us hope no administration will permit full autonomy, even on a trial basis, before the laws have been changed so we all know exactly where we stand.”

– by Alan Loynd, former General Manager of the renowned Hong Kong Salvage and Towage company

COLUMN | Salvage! (or alternative employment for a rig supply vessel) [The Wet Detective]

– “What a feeling of satisfaction and relief was shared by all on board both ships when the tow was finally let go.”

– by Mike Wall, marine educationalist, marine surveyor and consultant

Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!

Call for content!

Any news or views about the global tug and salvage sectors? Send it through to [email protected] ASAP (between now and October 29), so we can add it to this current edition of Tug and Salvage Week!

We are after:

• Vessels – Orders, new deliveries, under construction
• Gear – Latest innovations and technology in the tug and salvage sector
• Interviews – Owners, operators, builders, designers etc.
• Reminiscences – Do you have any exciting, amusing or downright dangerous anecdotes from your time in the tug and salvage world? (example here)
• Other – Any other relevant news

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