Tug that will provide support to ships transiting Panama Canal was purchased from Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey
SAAM Towage’s newest tug Quibian will bolster the company’s services in the waters around the port of Colon, Panama, on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal.
According to SAAM, Quibian, purchased from Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey, is both highly manoeuvreable and energy efficient. And both its manoevrability and efficiency are thanks to its compact design, SAAM said.
Designed by Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, it is a sister vessel to tugs Palenque and ValparaÃso, which also operate in Panama, Condór and Albatros operating in Peru, and Halcón III, which provides services in Chile.
The 24-m vessels offer 70 tonnes of bollard pull, and each have two Caterpillar 3615C main engines. Quibian has Fire-Fighting 1 class notation, with an on board fire-fighting pump with a capacity of 2,700 m3/hour.
The vessel, whose operations will include support for ships transiting the canal, has already reached the Port of Manzanillo, in Mexico, SAAM said.
“We are thrilled to welcome this new vessel, which will help us to continue to improve our value offering for customers. Our team is getting everything ready to officially begin operating very soon,” SAAM Towage Panama country manager Matia de Luiggi said.
The third new tug to join the Panamanian fleet, Quibian is named for an indigenous tribal chief from present-day Panama’s Caribbean region who, in historic accounts, is said to have forced the abandonment of a Spanish settlement built during colonial sailor Christopher Columbus’s fourth voyage to the Americas.
Riviera Maritime Media has a comprehensive conference programme for the rest of 2022 and will provide free technical and operational webinars in 2023.
