Irish Mainport Holdings has seen the launch in a shipyard in Turkey of its new 50-ton bollard pull (tbp) harbour tugboat built to serve on the Shannon Estuary.
Cork based Mainport which has towage support services at Shannon-Foynes ports, has been expanding its shiphandling capacities following Med Marine's completion of the 28m tug.
The newbuild named Celtic Treaty is built to a Robert Allan designed RAstar 2800 series.
This follows the last tug to join Mainport through subsidiary Celtic Tugs as Afloat reported in 2014 with the acquisition of 24/45 tbp Celtic Fergus. The former Turkish flagged 'Efesan Port’ was also from the same Canadian designer of Robert Allan Ltd.
The launch of the Celtic Treaty on 8 December took place at the Ereğli Shipyard on Black Sea coast. According to Mainport the tugboat is expected to delivered to the Shannon Estuary in May and join the Celtic Tugs pair based at the Port of Foynes.
Celtic Treaty's introduction will form part of Mainport's fleet modernisation plan as they prepare for larger ships and increased maritime trade in the European Union.
“This newbuild tug will ultimately replace Celtic Rebel on the Shannon Foynes Estuary in Ireland,” said Irish Mainport Holding fleet director Dermot Curtin. “It shows our commitment to our clients and continued satisfaction with the shipyard team in Turkey and Med Marine.”
More from Riviera News on Mainport which has other types of vessels in its fleet.
