New Tug Heads for New Zealand

The new tug, Arihi, named in consultation with the local Rununga (Maori council), measures 18 m long, has a bollard pull of 30 t and was completed in less than five months from date of order. 

Arihi will be primarily used by POL in assisting in channel dredging, a task that began in 2015. The aim to have a maintained channel depth of 14 m and this work is being undertaken using the Port Otago owned and operated dredge New Era and a 750 m3 split hopper barge. In addition to barge maneuvering, Arihi will be available for ship assist duties and possible external charter opportunities. To accommodate these wide ranging duties, the vessel is fitted with a push bow and special side and aft fendering.

The RAscal 1800 Class of ASD tug is the outcome of cooperation between the operational and construction teams of Sanmar AS and the designers at Robert Allan Ltd. The end result is an agile omni-directional vessel measuring 18.7 m x 9.2 m with a draft of 3.7 m.  The vessel can maintain a speed of 12 kn.

The vessel is equipped with a pair of Caterpillar C32 main engines, each developing 970 kW at 1,800 rpm driving stern-mounted Veth VZ-900 azimuth drives with carbon composite shafts turning 1,700 mm dia propellers inside high efficiency nozzles with stainless steel inner surfaces. Auxiliary generator sets are also by Caterpillar - a pair of 86 ekW C4.4s. Deck machinery items include a forward DMT towing winch and a Data towing hook swung from the aft staple.

The vessel will be delivered to Port Otago on a heavy lift vessel in June.