The tugboat “Civitavecchia” has been delivered to the Italian tugboat operator Italtugs for the company’s operation at a Sicilian oil terminal.
The delivery represents a new milestone in technical cooperation between Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey and the Canadian naval architects, Robert Allan Limited.
Combining Sanmar’s experience as an international tugboat operator with RAL’s design expertise has resulted in some 150 vessels being built at one of Sanmar’s custom-built shipyards. Now, this latest delivery is the first vessel of the Ulucay Class which is based on the RAstar 3200W design.
Sanmar’s Ali Gurun said, “The RAmparts 3200 design, of 70-80 [metric tons], has proved itself in previous years. We have constructed 11 sister vessels in this series. Then we started constructing the RAstar 2800 design, of similar bollard pull, our famous Sanmar Terminal series tugboats. These vessels have successfully responded to the demands of customers looking for 30- to 32-meter tugbboats. But in time, due to the changing demands of customers, we have felt the need for a new 32-meter design, under 500 gross registered tons, with 80-90 [metric tons] bollard pull, and started developing it. The first sister vessels are 85 [metric ton] versions of this design.”
The new vessel measures 32 meters LOA with a beam of 13.2 meters and an extreme draft of 6.4 meters. It is powered by two MAN 7L27/38 main engines each developing 2,555 kilowatt at 800 revolutions per minute. These turn Rolls-Royce type US25 CP Z-drive azimuthing thrusters with propellers of 2,800 millimeters diameter via solid shafts with two Cardan joints. The propellers turn inside mild steel nozzles. The designers state that in addition to a forward bollard pull of greater than 85 metric tons, the free-running speed is in excess of 13 knots. The two generator sets, each of 200 electrical kilowatts are also by MAN. A FiFi1 class fire-fighting system by FFS is main engine driven via Kumera gearboxes and feeds two monitors at the forward end of the bridge deck and a water spray system.
Accommodation is provided for a crew of 10 persons in six cabins, all with en suite facilities. The galley is stainless steel throughout and the mess room is both roomy and attractive in decor.
Both winches have a brake holding load of 200 tons. In addition the vessel has a Nouva Covis knuckle boom crane and one towing hook.
The Ulucay class series is designed for escort services and as well as occasional towage and the tugs are ex-proof in gas-cloud environments so are ideal for LNG terminal operations and have oil recovery notation. This design has the highest technical specification of its range.
