Power for Panama tugs

Wärtsilä is to supply Cheoy Lee Shipyards Ltd, of Hong Kong, with the propulsion plants for seven 60-tonne bollard pull Z-Tech tugs contracted by the Panama Canal Authority. They will be employed escorting and assisting ships in the Canal and are being built by Hin Lee (Zhu Hai) Shipyard Co Ltd at Doumen, Zhuhai, in Guangdong province, China, which is owned by Cheoy Lee Shipyards. Delivery will be during the second half of 2006 and in 2007.

The award-winning Z-Tech Concept, developed initially for PSA Marine (Pte) Ltd of Singapore by the Canadian naval architect Robert Allan Ltd, achieves an equal bollard pull and speed going ahead or astern, and has a safe, flat working deck and a “sea-going” stern for towing in “tractor” mode.

The new Z-Tech tugs are of a modified azimuthing stern drive type, with a length overall of 27.4m and a beam of 11.5m. Nominal bollard pull is 60 tonnes with a free-running speed of 12.8 knots.

Wärtsilä will supply each tug with a 3,600 kW propulsion plant comprising two 9-cylinder in-line series 20 engines each driving a Lips can-mounted steerable thruster having a fixed-pitch propeller in a high efficiency HR-nozzle. The engines will be resiliently-mounted in the tugs. A particular requirement for the engines is that they must be able to accelerate from standstill to full ahead within 12 seconds without heavy smoke emission.