While the UK government is scrapping its emergency tug service, China’s Guangzhou Huangpu Shipbuilding Company, part of the state-controlled China State Shipbuilding Corporation, is preparing to deliver two 117m by 16.2m 22-knot rescue tugs to the Chinese Ministry of Transport’s BeiHai and DongHai Rescue Bureaus. The twin vessels will follow the similar-sized Nan Hai Jiu 101 (South China Sea 101), which was delivered by the Guangzhou Huangpu yard in November 2007.
However, while the first vessel has a pair of Wärtsilä 6L46F 4SA six-cylinder main engines rated at a combined 19,000bhp, the latest tugs, North China Sea and East China Sea, will employ MAN Diesel & Turbo 6L48/60CR engines rated at a combined 19,310bhp. These will drive twin four-bladed Alpha Mk.5 propellers for a speed of 22 knots.
