VESSEL REVIEW | Le Moros – Compact harbour tug for Concarneau, France

A new harbour tug has been handed over to the Societe Cooperative des Lamaneurs des Ports de Brest et de Roscoff (SCL), a towage operator that serves clients in the ports of Brest and Roscoff on the Brittany peninsula in north-western France.

Constructed at the Vietnam facilities of French shipbuilder the Piriou Group, Le Moros was custom-designed to be capable of both harbour towing and pushing. Although it was designed primarily to be operated in coastal and harbour waters, the new tug can also perform towing of other vessels in the deeper offshore waters off the coast of Brittany – an area that also encompasses some parts of the Bay of Biscay – should the need arise.

Le Moros has an all-steel construction, a length of 16.5 metres, a beam of 6.56 metres, a maximum draught of 2.5 metres, and cabins for four crewmembers. The compact tug’s main deck provides ample space for housing all crew accommodation spaces in compliance to Maritime Labour Convention 2006 rules.

A pair of diesel engines that each produce 440 kW drive nozzle-housed propellers via shaftlines to give Le Moros a service speed of just above 10 knots and a bollard pull of 15 tonnes, making the tug capable of towing a broad range of vessels of up to 115 metres in length. Because of the environmental regulations being enforced in the tug’s area of operations, the builder opted to install main engines that are compliant to IMO Tier III regulations covering NOx emissions.

The design of the tug emphasised operational flexibility to allow harbour towing to be performed from either the rear or alongside, though pushing and deep-sea towing may be done only from the rear. Manoeuvrability is enhanced by the installation of a bow thruster to enable more precise navigation in close quarters or during berthing/unberthing.

The new tug was handed over to SCL in late September 2021 and has since begun operating under a towage concession that was awarded to the company earlier this year by CARENCO, the state-appointed enterprise that manages the Port of Concarneau in Brittany. The vessel is currently operating alongside the earlier SCL tugs Elorn and Portzic in providing harbour and offshore towage support, escort, and berthing/unberthing services for the many vessels that sail in and out of Concarneau. The operator said that, with the introduction of a third tug in its current active fleet, two tugs are now available to serve clients at the port 24 hours a day.

See more stories from this month’s Tug and Salvage Week here.