Svitzer Caucedo - another shoe drops

Returning to Halifax today from the International Tug and Salvage Conference ITS 2016 in Boston, I was interested to see the tug Svitzer Caucedo alongside the Svitzer Canada dock.

A well worn looking Svitzer Caucedo alongside the Svitzer Canada dock.

The tug only took this name in April. Originally it was Caucedo, built in 2004 by East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, PEI (hull number 79) for Remolcadores Domincanos of the Dominican Republic. That company has formed a joint venture with Svitzer Americas, to establish a widespread Caribbean base of operations.

Remolcadores Dominicanos has just taken delivery of two state of the at Damen ATD 2412 tugs, built by the Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Viet Nam.  ATD denotes Azimuthing Tractor Tug - meaning that the thrusters are mounted forward, rather than aft in the case of an ASD (Azimuthing Stern Drive). The other added feature of the new Damen type is twin skegs aft, as well as a very short but plump hull, which can work equally well over bow or stern.

 A similar tug depicted in this model at the Damen stand at ITS 2016 shows the twin skegs and twin azimuthing drives, mounted forward in tractor fashion.

 For more on the ATD 2412 see: Damen.com/en/ranges/atd-tug/atd-tug-2412

With delivery of these newer type tugs, the "conventional" ASD Caucedo has apparently proven to be at least partially surplus to current needs in the DR.

Since Svitzer established an operation in Montreal, it has stated that two more tugs would be joing the three already in place. My speculation was for an ice class type from the Danish fleet. However it seems that perhaps Caucedo is a "summer tug" to be used when the the ice class Svitzer Nerthus and Svitzer Njal go north to Baffinland for the July - October season.

Svitzer Caucedo is making its second visist to Halifax. The first time was in May 12-22, 2004 when it was in port for finishing touches on its delivery trip.

As built, the tug was fitted with a pair of V-16 Caterpillars giving 5,072 bhp, but was fitted with neither a towing winch nor firefighting gear.

Remolcadores Dominicanos also operates two other Georgetown built ASDs. Malena is a sister of Caucedo, also built in 2004. The third tug is Ocoa built in 2002 as Atlantic Oak (i)  but sold to RemDom in 2003. (Atlantic Towing had the tug built for service in Halifax, but delayed the start up for a year, and built another tug to the same spec.)
Ocoa is fully fitted with towing winch and firefighting gear, and is a sister to the current Atlantic Oak, based in Halifax. It alos has the capability of working in northern waters. Perhaps one of those will also be on the way back to Canada?

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