The naming ceremony has been held for two custom tugs built by Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld for De Boer Remorquage SARL, a joint venture between Dutch Dredging and Iskes Towage and Salvage. The ceremony took place in the port of Cayenne in French Guyana.
Both vessels represent innovative solutions and one of them has additional modifications that enable it to undertake dredging and other associated activities.
Present at the event where representatives from a number of French government agencies and the port authorities, plus guests from De Boer, Dutch Dredging, Iskes Towage & Salvage and Damen.
Sarah Ringuet, as Miss Kourou 2018, christened the ASD Tug 2310 SD (shallow draft) Papillon and Ms Ruth Briquet, as Miss Guyane 2018, did the same for the RSD WID Tug 2915 Fregate.
The Reverse Stern Drive (RSD) WID Tug 2915 Hybrid Fregate is a unique harbour tug that has been designed to provide a single vessel that is a fully-functional tug with 42.5 tonnes of bollard pull but is also fitted with a Water Injection Dredging (WID) system that enables it to maintain the depths of the harbours of Cayenne and Kourou in French Guyana.
The reason for the unusual design arose from the specific requirements of the contracting port authority GPM-Guyane, which manages the ports.
It recognised that specialist tugs and dredgers could not be kept fully occupied at its locations and so in its 2016 renewal tender it specified that designs be submitted that combined both attributes in two separate vessels, one of which became the RSD WID Tug 2915 Hybrid.
