An agreement was signed this week at the New Orleans Workboat Show between Damen Shipyards Group and Great Lakes Shipyard, USA, for the latter to build two Stan Tugs 1907 ICE at its facility in Cleveland, Ohio. According to Damen, the vessels will be Ice Class and operated by the yard’s affiliate company, The Great Lakes Towing Company. The tugs will replace existing tonnage and this will be the first time that Damen tugs have been built under licence in the USA.
Under the licence, Great Lakes Shipyard will receive full construction, design and engineering support from Damen. To achieve the best possible result, Damen will also provide expert assistance based on it experience with construction of nearly two hundred Damen designed vessels in the US over the years.
The Stan Tugs 1907 were chosen based on Damen’s reputation for quality and fact-finding visits made by the management of The Great Lakes Towing Company to Damen in the Netherlands. These visits demonstrated that the Stan Tug 1907 exactly matched the Towing Company’s needs. In addition to the Ice Class specification, the tugs will also be treated with special, high endurance paint capable of withstanding the abrasion that comes with moving through ice. Stan Tugs 1907 can be found operating in locations around the world including Russia, Qatar and the Netherlands.
The partnership with Damen has provided Great Lakes Shipyard with a portfolio of proven vessel designs for customers in the United States. Most of the designs have been very refined, through the progression of multiple builds. It is the high degree of refinement to the Stan Tug 1907 ICE design that will be of considerable benefit to Great Lakes Shipyard during the construction process and to The Great Lakes Towing Company in its use and operation of the new tugs.
While these are the first tugs to be built in the USA under Damen’s Technical Cooperation programme, over 200 Damen vessels have been built under licence in the USA since the mid-1990s. These include eighty 26-metre patrol boats for the US Coast Guard, built by Bollinger Shipyards; 55 Fast Crew Supplier 1204 class, built at Horizon Boat Builders and Trinity Shipyard; and 25 Fast Crew Supplier 1605 class vessels built by Blount Boats. Licences for 58 Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters based on Damen’s 47m Stan Patrol 4708 have also been sold.
Damen Shipyards Group operates 32 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 9,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 5,000 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers some 160 vessels annually to customers worldwide. Based on its unique, standardised ship-design concept Damen is able to guarantee consistent quality.
Damen’s focus on standardization, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale values and reliable performance. Furthermore, Damen vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology.
Damen offers a wide range of products, including tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and superyachts.
For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of services, including maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and the transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. Damen also offers a variety of marine components, such as nozzles, rudders, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.
In addition to ship design and shipbuilding, Damen Shiprepair & Conversion has a worldwide network of 15 repair and conversion yards with dry docks ranging up to 420 x 80 metres. Conversion projects range from adapting vessels to today’s requirements and regulations to the complete conversion of large offshore structures. DSC completes around 1,500 repair and maintenance jobs annually.