Sanmar’s faith in their latest design cooperation with Robert Allan Ltd has been well rewarded. The Turkish tug building company laid the keels of two Sirapinar Class tugs a month or so ago and the opportunity to purchase these ASDs has been snapped up by long established Italian operator, Rimorchiatori Napoletani.
Commenting on the new design, Ali Gurun of Sanmar said: “The industry is under the challenge of ever tighter cost control and the only way to achieve this is to have more bollard pull in more compact hulls with low operational and maintenance costs. This new design, which is exclusive to us, combines all these attributes”.
In mid-2015, Sanmar contracted with the naval architects RAL to design a “little sister” to its highly successful Bogacay series tugs. The result is a compact yet powerful 22m design designated by Robert Allan Ltd. as the RAmparts 2200 class and by Sanmar as their Sirapinar series.
The new series builds on the success of the RAmparts 2400-SX Bogacay series, of which over 30 have been constructed, with bollard pulls ranging from 60 to 75 tonnes. The hull of the new 22m tugs, available in 45 to 60 tonne bollard pull versions, is similar to the larger model and can run astern at high speeds, whilst maintaining good control and directional stability in all directions.
Measuring 22.40m overall with a beam of 10.85m and maximum draft of 4.67m the boats for Italy will be built to RINA class and Italian flag requirements and will be powered by pairs of 1500kW Caterpillar engines.These turn Schottel azimuthing Rudderpropellers to give a minimum of 50 tonnes bollard pull.
Even at this very early stage in the life of the Sirapinar series, this new order shows that it is destined to follow in the wake of its bigger sister and become another highly desirable and popular tug from this unrivalled design and build team.
Rimorchiatori Napoletani is headquartered in Naples and has an existing fleet of 20 vessels operating in four ports in Southern Italy.
