Sanmar Shipyards has held naming ceremonies over two consecutive days for five tugboats, according to the company's release. LNG-fuelled escort tugs are the most powerful tugboats that Sanmar has built to date, while the other 3 of the tugs are the first in the game-changing all-electric ElectRA series. All of them will work at Canada’s prestigious and environmentally-sensitive new LNG terminal in British Columbia.
The first ceremony on March 7 saw the naming of the 2 LNG-fuelled escort tugs at Sanmar’s Altinova Shipyard. Based on the RAstar 4000 DF design from Vancouver-based naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, the two Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugs named HAISEA KERMODE and HAISEA WARRIOR will be Canada’s first LNG tugs.
Ranking among the world’s highest performing escort tugs, at 40m in length and with more than 100 tonnes of bollard pull, these tugs will generate indirect escort forces of approximately 200 tonnes.
The second ceremony on March 8 was held at Sanmar’s Tuzla Shipyard and saw the naming of HAISEA WAMIS, HAISEA WEE’GIT and HAISEA BRAVE, 3 ground-breaking all-electric ElectRA tugboats which will carry out harbour duties at Kitimat.
At 28.4m in length, with 65+ tonnes bollard pull and 6,102 kWh of battery capacity each, the ElectRA 2800 electric harbour tugs will perform all their ship-berthing and unberthing missions on battery power alone. With ample clean hydroelectric power available in Kitimat, the harbour tugs will be able to recharge from dedicated shore charging facilities at their berths between jobs, effectively resulting in zero emissions.