Irving delivers Stevns Breaker – by Jack Gaston

A product of Irving’s East Isle Facility on Prince Edward Island, the new tug follows the Stevns Icequeen and Stevns Iceflower, completed in 2009. The tug was handed over in Canada in May and is now in service, managed along with the rest of the Stevns fleet by Nordane Shipping of Svendborg, Denmark.

Stevn is no stranger to Irving at the East Isle shipyard, which has built a succession of tugs for the Danish company. This latest series of four tugs have been built to the yard’s popular 30m ASD design. To avoid confusion the first two vessels, Stevns Icequeen and Stevns Iceflower, were strengthened to meet Ice Class 1A standards and replaced two almost identical tugs constructed for Stevns in 2006 bearing the same names.

Stevns Breaker and the sister ship to follow measure 30.8m in length overall, with a beam of 11.14m and draft of 3.88m. The tugs are equipped for shiphandling, escort duties, short sea towing and anchor handling. A large ‘escort skeg’ forward is fitted to enhance course stability and provide effective indirect (escort) towing capability. Fire fighting equipment is installed to meet the FiFi 1 standard.

A pair of Caterpillar 3516 BHD C diesel main engines develop a total of 2,000kW (approximately 5,434bhp) running at 1,600 rpm. Power is transmitted to Rolls-Royce US255 CP propulsion units incorporating controllable pitch propellers of 2.8m in diameter. This arrangement gives the tug a maximum bollard pull of 70 tons.

Manoeuvrability is enhanced with the installation of a 150kW Kamewa bow thruster. Electrical power is supplied by two Volvo Penta generator sets developing 165kW each and a Volvo Penta harbour set of 85kW.

Stevns Breaker has two towing winches and one combined tugger winch and capstan, all from the Dutch manfacturer Ridderinkhof. A single drum electrically powered towing winch on the foredeck, for shiphandling and escort work, has a maximum brake load of 150 tons and carries 122m of 89mm diameter Spectra towline. The single drum aft winch, for towing and anchorhandling, is also electrically driven, has the same 150 tons brake load and carries a 762m towline of 52mm diameter steel wire rope. A set of 200mm diameter retractable tow pins and a stern roller are installed, along with a Washington Chain tow hook.

Fire fighting equipment includes two remote controlled FFS water/foam monitors which are located above the wheelhouse and are each capable of delivering 1,200 cu/m of water per hour. The monitors and the protective water spray system are supplied by a dedicated pump of 2,800 cu/m/hr capacity coupled to the front end of the port main engine.

Accommodation is provided for a maximum of six persons, with well fitted facilities and low noise levels to meet the stringent requirements of the Danish Maritime Authorities.