Multraship Towage & Salvage held a Christening ceremony on 30 May to name its newest tug Multratug 35 at its home port of Terneuzen, the Netherlands. The vessel is a Damen ASD Tug 3212.
Multraship’s HR manager, Mrs Chrétienne Huisman, did the honours and wished the tug and its crews fair winds and following seas.
Damen and Multraship signed the contract for the vessel – together with a second, identical ASD Tug 3212 – in June last year. Prior to the contract, Damen had already commenced construction on the tugs as part of its practice of building standard vessels for stock, ensuring its clients a fast delivery of a reliable product.
Also read: Multraship names two Damen tugs in Terneuzen
Growing towage business
Multraship’s managing director, captain Leendert Muller, says: ‘Our business has grown to meet additional customer and project requirements, and as such, we invested in additional vessels and have grown our team both at sea and onshore.’
Muller comments that the demand for Multraship’s services has been mainly driven by project requirements. However, it also reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to uphold a high-quality and diverse fleet, which enables them to handle both complex and routine harbour and sea towage requirements as well as salvage and emergency response incidents.
‘Together with Multratug 35, we ordered three ASD tugs from Damen, which have been built in Vietnam. Multratug 34, an ASD Tug 2813, has already been delivered and is in service in Oman. The third, Multratug 36, was delivered in April and is now sailing to the Netherlands on its own keel. It is expected to arrive early July after an approximate 13,500 miles journey. Multratug 35 and 36 are 32-metre tugs to ASD Tug 3212 design for deepsea and coastal towage, salvage and other operations, adds Muller.
Also read: UK provides important and loyal clients for Damen
IMO Tier III
Both Multratug 35 and its forthcoming sister are 32-metre tugs with a bollard pull of 88 tonnes. Though built to Damen’s proven design, they have been substantially upgraded to Multraship’s high standards and requirements with a series of options.
These include compliance with IMO Tier III requirements. This is achieved with the installation of Damen’s in-house developed Marine NOx Reduction system. This modular, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system reduces NOX emissions by eighty per cent compared with IMO Tier II requirements.
Additionally, Damen has installed the tug with FiFi 1 firefighting systems and it has been upgraded for anchor handling and related offshore operations. Crew accommodation space has been enhanced with additional insulation and rubberised to provide greater comfort.
Also read: Multraship supplies Dutch Coast Guard with emergency tugs
