Although it is a company with more

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1 The ART of Tug Deign ROBERT G. ALLAN P.ENG. Although it i a company with more than a century of corporate hitory, when Kotug introduced the Rotor Tug concept they were really put onto centre tage in the world towage indutry. The RotorTug i the patented concept of Ton Kooren, now the retired chairman of the organization, and it wa introduced to the indutry at the International Tug & Salvage Conference in The patent for the idea cover the ue of three omnidirectional drive unit of any type in a tug, in any triangular configuration. Eentially a Rotor Tug i a true Tractor Tug with 2 Z-drive forward rather than Voith propeller, and with the addition of a third drive unit aft (ee Fig 1). Conceived and initially ued for working in the confined port of Wetern Europe, epecially in retricted canal and lock ytem, a primary advantage of the triple drive concept i that it can work very effectively in the ideway direction where pace for conventional tug operation i contrained. Thi can involve imply puhing athwarthip with the tug, beam on to the hip ide, but the real merit are in the operating configuration Fig 1: Typical Rotor Tug Configuration dubbed rotoring in which the tug work at the end of the hip and effectively within the beam limit of the hip. In the rotoring attitude hown in Figure 2, it can readily be een that the wah of the tug doe not impact on the hip at all and therefore i far more efficient at controlling the hip. Fig 2: Rotoring a hip onto a berth and through a narrow bridge paage. JANUARY 2014 WESTERNMARINER.COM 23

2 The ART of Tug Deign Fig 3: ART Cla ecort Rotor tug After working together on everal major deign project, Robert Allan Ltd and KST BV, (now Rotortug BV, a oppoed to the Kotug towing buine) concluded an agreement in 2012 which made Robert Allan Ltd the excluive deigner of all Rotor Tug worldwide. Thi enable the company to offer any of the major tug propulion configuration currently in ue to all it client. In addition it bring to the Rotor Tug portfolio the expertie which Robert Allan Ltd ha gained deigning hundred of major highperformance VSP and Z-drive ecort and harbour/terminal tug. In particular the blending of the RAtar tyle hull form with the triple drive Rotor Tug how great promie in exciting new ecort and terminal tug concept. Thi combination ha been branded a the Advanced Rotor Tug (ART) and ha been applied to a family of new deign now emerging on the world tug tage under thi recent cooperative/licening agreement. The firt tug uing the ART deignation wa a concept developed in 2005, prior to the deign agreement. The objective wa a large and capable ecort/terminal tug for major port anticipating handling the new generation of ultra-large container hip. The ART (Figure 3; 100 tonne BP / 37 metre loa) wa extenively model-teted and it uperior ecort performance urpried all involved in the deign and teting. 24 WESTERNMARINER.COM JANUARY 2014

3 The next major deign project wa for a erie of 85 tonne BP, 35 metre tug (ART 85-35) to ecort large bulk carrier through a long, narrow channel at the iron ore port of Port Hedland in Wetern Autralia. That deign wa alo extenively model-teted to verify that the demanding operational performance requirement could be met. A part of the proce the relative merit of Rotor Tug with two drive forward (tractor tyle) and with two drive aft (ASD tyle) were examined extenively. The reult were mot intereting and indicated that there wa a place for both type, depending on the application, but ultimately the tractor tyle wa elected for thi particular project. With the igning of the excluive deign agreement with Robert Allan Ltd, work began in earnet on everal new Rotor Tug concept. The major change initiated related to refining the hull form, particularly incorporating the hape ued in RAL high performance AVT erie of VSP and RAtar erie of ASD ecort tug into the Rotor Tug family of deign. The original Rotor Tug were baed on the hull hape of the Faut Tractor Tug built in the US Gulf (probably in the early 90) and ultimately purchaed by Kotug for ervice in European port. Thee were very imple but quite effective ingle chine hape. The unique pononed hull hape developed by Robert Allan Ltd have been proven through extenive model and full-cale teting to provide much enhanced tability, eakeeping, and ecort performance far uperior to any tandard wall-ided alternative. On-going reearch i till being conducted however concerning the optimum hull form for the Rotor Tug, particularly examining the relative merit of ingle v. double chine form. An intereting aide to the Rotor Rug tory wa the adoption in 2005 by Fo Maritime of the triple drive ytem, where they added a Z-drive aft to their older VSP tug in order to boot power and performance. Thi Tractor-Plu configuration, covered by the Rotor Tug patent, ha proven very effective in enhancing the capability and thu extending the life of older lower-powered tug. To date Fo ha reconfigured three of their tug in thi fahion. In March 2013 order were placed for the firt four of the new ART Rotor Tug deign, the firt project completed under the excluive agreement. Damen Shipyard Group of the Netherland are contructing two hybrid verion and Cheoy Lee Shipyard of Hong Kong are building two with all-dieel propulion ytem, all equipped to a Fi-Fi 1 tandard. The ART cla ha a propulion ytem delivering 3 x 1765 kw, achieving a bollard pull of 80 tonne. The ART hybrid verion will be equipped with the Apin Kemp & Aociate (AKA) XeroPoint Hybrid Propulion Sytem, nicely rounding out the Canadian input to thi unique new deign. The AKA power management ytem integrate electrical and mechanical energy to provide optimal operational mode, reulting in ignificant environmental and economic aving. Other deign currently under development include the ART and ART nicely rounding out the portfolio offer- ComNav 1001 Autopilot HARCO MANUFACTURING Engine & Environmental Product Complete Exhaut Sytem Top Rated Light Commercial Autopilot 3 Year Warranty Eay Intallation SELLING AND SERVICING COMNAV AUTOPILOTS FOR 25+ YEARS See u about Compa Repair 1437-A 16th Avenue, Campbell River, BC V9W 2E4 Tel: Fax: eacom@hawbiz.ca Emiion Control Low Weight Noie Reduction Heat Reduction ABS Certification 1000 Indutrial Parkway, Newberg, OR JANUARY 2014 WESTERNMARINER.COM 25

4 The ART of Tug Deign ing in term of ize and power. The particular of all three of thee deign are a hown in the table below. The General Arrangement for the ART i hown in Figure 5. Figure 4: ART Cla Ecort Rotor Tug While thee are being developed a eentially tandard deign option, work i alo being done on cutom deign to meet the requirement of very pecific project, which include everal major offhore and ecort towing project with very large and powerful option tug in the metre ize range and with up to 125 tonne BP. The potential ue of the ART cla of tug a tanker ecort tug deerve pecial mention. The model teting and analyi done to date on the 37-metre and 35-metre deign indicate that the ecort performance capability of a Rotor Tug i definitely uperior to that typically aociated with the current tandard of VSP or ASD ecort tug. Thi could have ignificant The Shipowner Club Leave your inurance liabilitie to the expert See your broker today 26 WESTERNMARINER.COM JANUARY 2014

5 PROFILE MAIN DECK import for coatal BC if and when the variou energy tranportation project currently under conideration move forward with plan for active pill prevention through advanced tanker ecort tug and ecort towing operation. The ue of uch highperformance ecort tug provide the all-important prevention part of the equation which no amount of pill repone capability can hope to accomplih. Robert Allan Ltd are alo jut commencing the very fun deign of a unique 15 metre Training Advanced Rotor Tug (a TART??) which will be outfitted to a high tandard to alo erve a a corporate demontration/hopitality veel for Kotug at their waterfront office in Rotterdam. In ummary the ART erie of Rotor Tug are an exciting new development in the ever-changing face of progreive tug deign worldwide. While no pecific type of tug i ever the panacea for tug operation everywhere, thee new ART cla tug will certainly raie ome eyebrow when their performance and capabilitie are compared to more conventional tug deign. Robert G. Allan P.Eng. i the Executive Chairman of Robert Allan Ltd. LOWER ACCOMODATIONS Fig 5: ART GA ( ) JANUARY 2014 WESTERNMARINER.COM 27