On Thursday, 11 May, Multraship Towage & Salvage named two Damen-built tugs at a christening ceremony held at Multraship’s home port of Terneuzen, the Netherlands. Multratug 5, a Damen Stan Tug 1205, and Multratug 6, a Damen ASD Tug 2810, immediately entered into service upon delivery.
The tugs are currently in operation in the River Scheldt area.
The speed with which the tugs were delivered was thanks to Damen’s practice of building in series and for stock. Although based on proven, standard designs, Damen is able to tailor its vessels to the requirements of its clients. In the case of Multratug 6, this included a winterisation package, FiFi-1 class notation and installation of an aft winch, amongst many other additional features.
Also read: Damen Shipyards reports record revenue over 2022
Last ASD Tug 2810
Multratug 6 also has the distinction of being the last Damen ASD Tug 2810 ever to be built. Following the sale of over 200 vessels, the ASD Tug 2810 is Damen’s most successful design to date and can be found operating in harbours all around the world. It is now being succeeded by the next-generation ASD Tug 2811.
Captain Leendert Muller, Managing Director, Multraship, commented at the ceremony: ‘We work hard to ensure that our fleet reflects the needs and requirements of our customers and that we are best equipped to provide rapid, reliable and safe towage and salvage services at any time. For this, we need to have high-quality tugs with a range of operational capabilities.’
Vincent Maes, sales manager Benelux at Damen: ‘It’s a pleasure to be here to witness this special occasion. The event is made even more poignant with Multratug 6 being the last ASD Tug 2810 to be delivered. The design of the tug, like all vessels in our portfolio, has been developed with lots of valuable input from our clients. Multraship, as a long-standing customer of many years, has provided with us many useful insights that have been incorporated into the evolution of our tugs.’
Also read: Multraship supplies Dutch Coast Guard with emergency tugs
Fleet expansion
The vessels were delivered to Multraship during a period of wider fleet expansion, with the company also adding two ERTVs, Multraship Commander and Multraship Protector, as well as the Multrasalvor 6, a Damen Multi Cat and salvage support vessel along with another Damen harbour tug, Multratug 9, over the past year.
Multraship is a division of the Muller Maritime Group, which has been engaged in the shipping industry for more than 230 years. Multraship’s core activities include harbour towage, salvage & wreck removal, ocean towage and support to offshore energy & dredging industries.
