Fairplay News

Sanmar Shipyards won new build contracts for up to 10 tugboats, a milestone agreement that coincide with the shipbuilder's 50th anniversary.The contracts include fleet expansions for long-standing partners SAAM Towage and HAISEA Marine, as well as a landmark inaugural agreement with FAIRPLAY TOWAGE GROUP.On Wednesday, May 20, Sanmar formalized a new agreement with long-term partner SAAM Towage for five new vessels: four RAmparts 2400SX-MKIl tugboats and one RAstar 2900SX tugboat. Since 2018, the collaboration has been rooted in a shared commitment to sustainable, high-performance operations.

Tug Network Team has appointed Felipe Gouvêa as executive director as the towage alliance moves to strengthen coordination and expand its international operations.The alliance, launched in the Americas in 2024 and recently expanded into Europe, connects operators across 113 ports in 13 countries with a combined fleet of more than 200 tugs.Gouvêa previously served as chief executive of Brazilian towage operator Sulnorte and has held senior roles across shipping, chartering, port…

Tug Network Team (TNT), an alliance of independent towage operators launched in the Americas in 2024, has expanded into Europe with the addition of Fairplay Towage.The move increases the alliance’s presence to 113 ports across 13 countries with a combined fleet of more than 200 tugboats.TNT was initially formed by Group Ocean, Sulnorte and CPT Towage to strengthen regional cooperation among independent operators and offer shipowners broader access to towage services across the Americas.With the addition of Hamburg-based Fairplay Towage, the alliance now extends its reach into Europe.

On November 21, Damen Shipyards Group delivered three new tugs, consisting of an RSD Tug 2513 named Fairplay-98, and two ASD Tugs 2312 named Fairplay-86 and Fairplay-87. The RSD Tugs 2513 and one ASD Tug 2312 have been delivered direct to the Fairplay Towage Group, while the other ASD Tug 2312 was delivered to Neue Schleppdampfschiffsreederei Louis Meyer GmbH & Co. KG. This vessel has also joined the Fairplay Towage fleet on a long-term bareboat charter.

Fairplay Towage Group has placed an order with Damen Shipyards for the delivery of two additional tugboats.One of the two tugboats is of the ASD Tug 2813 design, while the other will be fitted with azimuth stern drives and a bollard pull of 60 tonnes and with an aft winch for offshore towage.The ASD Tug 2813 boasts a bollard pull in excess of 80 tonnes for harbor assistance. Both vessels will be fitted with external FiFi capabilities for swift response to emergencies.These are the most recent vessels to be purchased by Fairplay from Damen…

Fairplay Towage Polska has ordered a Shoalbuster 2711 ICE vessel from the standardized workboat portfolio of the Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards Group. The company will use the newbuild to perform Designed with extremely shallow draft capability, large cargo capacity and 45 tonne bollard pull, the vessel will be built in Poland and used for diverse operations, including in the offshore wind industry, in the Baltic and North seas.Despite the standard nature of the design, Damen is able to tailor the vessel to the requirements of its clients.

Marlink subsidiary Telemar said it signed a five-year service maintenance deal with Fairplay Towage to deliver bridge maintenance services across 50 of the company’s port and ocean tugs in Germany, Holland and Belgium.The contracts will consolidate service of critical bridge navigation equipment to a single provider, and scheduled service will be planned to agreed timeframes.The contract includes managing GMDSS declarations, annual radio survey, annual radar inspection, exchange of reserve-power batteries for GMDSS and SART/EPIRB/GMDSS handheld batteries.

Another year; another major fleet takeover by Kirby Corporation. But the leader of the inland tank-barge sector is not growing for growth’s sake: a deeper look at the numbers shows a disciplined strategy at work.“Kirby is definitely the big gorilla in the inland barge market,” affirmed Jefferies analyst Randy Giveans. Indeed, Houston-headquartered Kirby Corp has been extremely active buying fleets over the past few years, most recently acquiring the 63 tank barges of Cenac Marine in March for $244 million.

Setting out to increase fairness, equality and inclusion within the maritime sector, Maritime UK has established a Women in Maritime Taskforce, a move welcomed by the U.K.’s new Maritime Minister, Nusrat Ghani MP. “I am delighted to see Maritime UK taking action to attract more women into our maritime industries, and I welcome this taskforce as an important first step,” said Ghani, who is only the second woman to hold the Department for Transport portfolio for the U.K.’s £40 billion maritime sector.

Palau International Ship Registry (PISR) has become the fastest growing flag in the shipping world with an impressive 43.2% growth in the number of vessels joining the registry since 2013 according to Fairplay magazine. Recording strong growth that puts it well ahead of other expanding registries such as Portugal, Saudi Arabia and the Cook Islands, Palau has attracted significant numbers of tankers into its fleet along with Ro-Ro vessels, bulk carriers and offshore ships. Tankers currently comprise just under half of Palau’s fleet and Panos Kirnidis, CEO of Palau International Ship Registry, sees this as a growth area. “This news is not surprising to Palau as we have been steadily growing and we are attracting not only tankers but also passenger…

The fatal explosion in the pump room on the Brazilian FPSO Cidade de São Mateus in February 2015, demonstrated the potential for major accidents on this type of unit. Although there has never been an explosion in the oil storage tanks of an FPSO, there is a potential for such an event and offshore operators should assess the risks of such events to design against them. It is therefore imperative that risk assessments of FPSOs address this type of event. For this, they need to estimate its annual likelihood of occurring.

For many in shipping, the Brexit was unexpected. Many believe that Brexit’s impact on the shipping industry will be more or less neutral. The UK Chamber of Shipping remained neutral on the question of Britain's departure during the runup to the vote. It issued a statement emphasizing the industry's importance in all events. "We are still an island nation that has to make its way in the world through buying and selling, and the shipping industry is here for that purpose . . . shipping moves 95 percent of the UK's international trade and we don't see that changing," the organization said. The chamber highlighted a series of key policy areas that will need attention from the government before the UK leaves.

The Fairplay fleet in Rotterdam welcomes two new members: The hybrid tractor tugs Fairplay IX and Fairplay XI, each equipped with a SCHOTTEL hybrid propulsion system including two SCHOTTEL Rudderpropellers SRP 4000 with hybrid gearboxes, two electric motors and an integrated steering control system, specialized for hybrid propulsion. Tugs are required to fulfill a variety of daily tasks, covering the full power spectrum, from stand by periods to towing operations. The installed hybrid propulsion concept enables the Fairplay tugs to operate with an optimal power output, SCHOTTEL said.

A 738-foot motor vessel Kind Seas was detained by the U.S. Coast Guard after significant safety violations were found during an inspection in Kalama, Washington, Friday. Discrepancies were discovered by Portland’s Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit vessel inspectors during a routine inspection of the 1998-built Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier vessel. Safety violations were related to a complete failure of the emergency generator, which provides power to emergency equipment including the emergency firefighting pump system. Other discrepancies include deficient structural fire boundary doors designed to prevent the spread of a fire, inoperable bilge pumps critical to removing excess water and waste oil accumulation in engine compartments, and inoperable life saving communication equipment.

The Rolls-Royce brand MTU and Fairplay Towage are to test an MTU diesel genset with SCR exhaust aftertreatment in a harbor tug in order to verify compliance with IMO Tier III emission requirements that come into force as of 2016. The nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions will be cut by 90% compared with the IMO Tier I regulation that was introduced in 2000. “This is one of the world’s first tests of high-speed diesel engines equipped with an SCR system designed to meet the NOx levels required by IMO Tier III,” said Dr. Michael Haidinger, Chief Sales Officer of Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

ClassNK (Chairman and President Noboru Ueda) has announced that the Portuguese Flag Adminstration (Instituto Portuário e dos Transportes Marítimos, I.P) and ClassNK entered into an agreement on 29 August 2012. Under the agreement, the Society is now able to perform surveys and issue certificates in accordance with SOLAS, MARPOL, Load Line and other international conventions to all Portuguese flagged vessels and Madeiran flagged vessels, on behalf of those flags administrations.

ClassNK (Chairman and President： Noboru Ueda) has announced that it signed an agreement with the Lithuanian Maritime Safety Administration on 14 June 2012 granting ClassNK the authority to conduct statutory certifications on behalf of the flag administration. Under the agreement, the Tokyo-based classification society is now authorized to perform surveys and issue certificates in accordance with SOLAS, MARPOL, Load Line, TM69 and other international conventions on behalf of the Lithuanian flag. This agreement makes Lithuania the 105th flag administration to delegate authority for statutory certifications to ClassNK, which became the world’s first classification to have more than 200 million gross tons on its register in May 2012.

A worrying indictment of the plight of seafarers has been delivered by a far-reaching survey of the experiences of seafarers facing criminal charges with seafarers complaining of unfair treatment, intimidation and a lack of legal representation and interpretation services. The survey by international legal research center, Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI), of 3,480 seafarers in the 12 months to the end of February, 2012, was conducted in eight languages, with responses returned from 18 countries and 68 different nationalities of seafarers. Of the seafarers surveyed, 8 percent had faced criminal charges; 4 percent had been witnesses in criminal prosecutions, while 33 percent knew of colleagues who had faced criminal charges.

Wallem installs DNV Navigator to its fleet of more than 190 ships. Wallem Ship Management in Hong Kong has ordered DNV Navigator for its managed fleet of more than 190 ships. The contract also includes the Work and Rest Hours module allowing for compliance with international legislation on rest hours for seafarers. DNV Navigator is a dedicated decisions support tool for assisting the Master in handling the administrative and regulatory complexity of port operations. The new contract is the largest ever signed for DNV Navigator.

In September 2011, as the monsoon began to blow itself out, there were grave warnings from a number of sources and analysts that the shipping industry could expect to see a significant surge in pirate activity as conditions in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean became more favorable. But as conditions cleared, the anticipated increase in pirate activity failed to materialize, to the surprise of many in the industry. This was all the more remarkable given the business model of Somali pirates…

Maritime Information Systems AS, Norway (MARIS), a recognised Electronic Navigation specialist, has secured its first contract from the Hong Kong Marine Police. After an official tendering process, the company has been selected to supply 12 ECDIS Systems on board 12 existing patrol boats operating in waters around Hong Kong. MARIS worked with its agent Elekon Electrical Company to make several presentations to the HKMP Department and was selected after meeting all technical requirements. MARIS will provide its latest ECDIS Systems based on its 10th Generation Smartline MK-10 ECDIS 900 Systems with advanced features and latest hardware, including the Intel Core-2 DUO processor, solid state drives, etc.

Nor-Shipping has released names of the winners of the 2011 Clean Ship and Next Generation Ship Awards. The winners were announced today at the Nor-Shipping Opening Conference on May 24, 2011. The awards, which showcase industry excellence, were presented by Norwegian Minister of Trade & Industry Trond Giske and Henrik Madsen, CEO of Det Norske Veritas (DNV). An independent jury considered a total of 40 candidates for the 2011 awards. The Clean Ship Award honors the shipowner and…

On May 23rd at the National Press Club in Washington DC, the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA)  and IHS Fairplay will be hosting a dinner to commemorate National Maritime Day, which is held on May 22nd to honor merchant mariners. At this dinner, the 2010 AMVER (Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System) Award recipients will receive recognition for their service from Congressman Frank LoBiondo, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, and Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp. The evening begins at 6:00PM with a reception. The genesis of the Amver system ultimately finds its roots in the RMS TITANIC disaster in 1912.