Sanmar Begins Construction of New RASTAR

Canada's oldest privately owned consulting Naval Architectural firm Robert Allan Ltd (RAL) announced that Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey started the construction of a new series of RAstar 3200-SX tugs in March of 2019.

The tugs which are named by Sanmar after a large river in Turkey as the Kocaçay series, are exclusively designed by Robert Allan Ltd. for construction by Sanmar and are key additions to the line up of Sanmar built tugs.

This wide range of tug starts at the highly capable 15 m RAscal 1500 line-handling tugs up to 34 m long RAstar 3400 escort tugs all finished to impeccable quality standards. The first two vessels are currently being built for Orkney Islands Council Marine Services.

The RAstar 3200-SX tugs are purposely designed with a shallower draft than other comparable high-performance escort tugs and incorporate considerable input and collaboration with Sanmar.

This includes design optimization to minimize construction costs without reducing end performance, implementing feedback from the large number of companies already operating Sanmar built Robert Allan Ltd. designed tugs and pre-engineering features to easily allow future customization requests received from their global customer base to be quickly implemented.

The RAstar 3200-SX escort/ship-assist tugs are a twin Z-drive, diesel-powered vessel, designed for the performance of ship-handling, towing and escort duties. The escort tug is equipped for operations over the bow and stern, with a powerful escort winch at the bow for escorting and ship handling operations, and a towing winch, towing pins and rounded transom at the stern for towing.

The vessel has been outfitted to the highest standards for up to ten crew in fully MLC 2006 compliant cabins located fully above the waterline and fitted with means of attaining natural light. The Master’s and Chief engineer’s cabins are located on the main deck, with four additional double crew cabins located on the lower accommodation deck. There is also a galley and mess room/lounge located on the main deck.

Main propulsion for each tug comprises a pair of CAT 3516C diesel engines, each rated at 2,350kW or 2,525 kW at 1800 rpm, and each driving a Rolls Royce US 255 P30 CP Z-drive unit, with a 2.8 m diameter controllable pitch propeller. Both configurations are estimated to deliver a free running speed over 13.5 knots with expected bollard pull of up to 84 tonnes ahead from the higher power rating.

Unlike other shallow-draft draft designs that use a compromised hullform to achieve a reduced draft these RAstar 3200-SX are still expected to deliver high astern bollard pulls of up to 77 tonnes.

The vessel design has been performed using the latest Robert Allan Ltd. escort analysis software with the tug capable of safely escorting ships at up to and including 10 knots with predicted steering forces over 70 tonnes and braking forces of almost 120 tonnes.