Remedies for the tug sector's growing pains

摘要

Modern tugs have grown immensely in terms of size and power, coming to handle a greater range of loads than before. While these increases are welcome, such surges in capacity have presented a fresh set of technical and environmental challenges for boatbuilders and designers. Speaking at Middle East Workboats 2011, hosted in Abu Dhabi, October this year, Robert G Allan, executive chairman of the board at Canadian naval architect Robert Allan Ltd, opined that, while the surge in average tug bollard pull capacity was set to continue - up from 50bp on traditional tugs, to an average of 80-90bp for most recent launches -so too were factors such as the need to manage costs, as well as a scarcity of skilled crew members.