Turkish shipbuilder delivers RAscal 1500 ASD tug to French port

Sanmar said that it has delivered a compact RAscal 1500 ASD tug designed for high performance at a competitive cost to new customer CCI Bayonne Pays Basque, which manages the Port of Bayonne in France.

Based on the RAscal 1500 design series from Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, GÖKSU V is 14.95m long with a moulded breadth of 8.30m and a least moulded depth and navigational draft of 3m. It can achieve 16 tons of bollard pull and a speed of 10 knots.

GÖKSU V is an ASD tug that has been specifically designed and developed for ship-handling in modern, but typically smaller harbour and port operations. The forward winch also serves emergency towing over the stern as a pipe tunnel runs underneath the wheelhouse.  With a crew of up to four people, its tank capacities include 20m3 of fuel oil and 2m3 of fresh water.

For its delivery journey, it was loaded onto a heavy-lift vessel at Haydarpaşa port near Istanbul, Turkiye, for the voyage to the Port of Bayonne, which saw a 12.2 per cent increase in traffic during 2023.

Rüçhan Çıvgın, Commercial Director of Sanmar Shipyards, said: “GÖKSU V is part of a series of tugs which could almost have been designed with needs of clients such as CCI Bayonne Pays Basque in mind. Compact and robust, it benefits from great manoeuvrability. We are delighted that the wide range of tugs that we offer has once again resulted in us being able to meet the specific needs of a first-time customer.”