Vessel owner Mainport Group has ordered a new harbour tug to support larger ships entering Irish ports
Mainport celebrated the keel laying of the 28-m escort tugboat at Med Marine’s Eregli Shipyard in the Zonguldak region of Turkey on 16 May.
This tug will be built as a MED-A2850 vessel to a RAstar 2800 design by Robert Allan Ltd. Scheduled for completion and delivery Q1 2023, it will then be sailed to begin operations in Ireland.
Mainport fleet director, Dermot Curtin, Eregli Shipyard manager Kemal Bektas and Med Marine sales manager Melis Ucuncu where among those attending the keel-laying ceremony for hull ER 117.
This tugboat will have a moulded beam of 13 m, a hull depth at its least moulded area of 5 m, a draught of around 6 m and accommodation for eight people.
Its propulsion of two main engines and azimuth thrusters will give this tug a top speed of 12.5 knots and bollard pull of 50 tonnes.
Mr Üçüncü expects construction of this tugboat will lead to “further co-operation between Mainport and Med Marine in the future.”
Irish Mainport Holding’s fleet consists of eight vessels, including tugs, platform supply vessels and support vessels for seismic surveys. It is a single point of contact for many Irish port calls, with stevedoring services in Shannon-Foynes and the port of Cork.
Its subsidiary Celtic Tugs operates two tugboats in Ireland. Celtic Fergus is a 2014-built tug with 2,460 kW of power and 1984-built Celtic Rebel has 48 tonnes of bollard pull.
Mainport provided support to the Kinsale gas production platforms off southern Ireland for 35 years until they were decommissioned.
In 2021, Mainport sold its offshore support vessel Ocean Spey, which had serviced the two platforms for at least five years, to new owners in Castellan, Spain.
