Tug silliness in Halifax Harbour

To promote Irving Shipbuilding, two Atlantic Towing tugs conducted a demonstration in Halifax to kick off Ocean Week.
Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Willow did some pirouettes, crash stops, spins and push offs. All good fun.
1. Atlantic Willow does a high speed spin.

2. Atlantic Oak, full speed astern.......

3. Then a crash stop in her own length.

4. Oak and Willow meet for a push off.

5. Oak does a spin.

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Atlantic Towing Goes Green

1. Atlantic Fir (named for an evergreen) works Alice Oldendorff 2011-02-05.

Atlantic Towing has joined Green Marine, a shipping industry environmental organization. This is a worthy move for a forward looking company.

Hidden within their announcement is one tantalizing tidbit of info, that their Evergreen Tug Technology (hydrid tug) is in the final stages of development. This must mean that they are planning to build a hybrid tug. If so they would be joining a very select group of tug operators, including Foss (which is has two hydrid tugs)

Not mentioned in the latest news is a possibly interesting connection. One of the world's leading tug hybrid technology firms is based in Prince Edward Island, and that is where Irving Shipbuilding has its tug building yard. Seems like a natural.

Read more here:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1231004.html

Point Halifax returns to Halifax - but briefly

1. Point Halifax at her new home base of Port Hawksbury, November 12, 2010.

2. Ocean Foxtrot and Point Halifax with Atlantic Sealion as seen from Point Tupper. Both tugs were on charter to Atlantic Towing.

Point Halifax returned to her "home port" this evening for the first time since July, but did not linger. Based here from the time of her delivery in 1986, she was transferred to Port Hawksbury as part of the deal that saw Svitzer and Atlantic Towing forming joint ventures for tugs in Halifax and the Strait of Canso. Atlantic Towing now provides all tugs in Halifax, Svitzer provides all tugs in Point Tupper and Point Halifax is bareboat chartered to Atlantic Towing.

Her arrival in Halifax tonight had her towing the barge Atlantic Sealion [see Shipfax for more on the barge] from Port Hawksbury to the Novadock floating drydock at Halifax Shipyard. Once inside the harbour Point Halifax turned the tow over to Atlantic Oak and Atlantic Larch and headed directly back to sea, bound for Port Hawksbury.

All this happened after dark, so no photos of the actual event.

Tugs and Atlantic Condor

Three tugs attended the launch of the Atlantic Condor this afternoon. The new supplier was very difficult to handle, in part because she was trimmed down by the bow. The tugs also had a hard time getting secured to the ship, and very narrowly averted contact with the HMCS Ville de Quebec which was moored nearby.

Atlantic Larch, Fir and Willow spent the rest of the afternoon getting the ship into her fit out berth.

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Tug Show in Halifax

The four harbour tugs of Atlantic Towing Ltd put on quite a show this afternoon. They were off Halifax Shipyard to attend the launch of the new supplier Atlantic Condor. However at the appointed time the launch was postponed due to high winds. Nevertheless we were treated to some very skilled maneuvering, including spins, sidestepping, nose to nose, pinwheel and some water spraying.

With the launch rescheduled for tomorrow, may we expect another show (please?)

1. Atlantic Fir, Willow, Larch and Oak, four abreast.

2. Atlantic Oak gives a display of pumping.

3. All four tugs in attendance for the launch of Atlantic Condor.

Hantsport Tug For Sale [for a while]

1. Spanish Mist off the dock at high water, and outbound. September 17, 2003.

2. Between jobs, the tug dries out at her berth. Note she has no rolling chocks, which would be damaged by twice daily groundings. September 10, 1997.

The tug Spanish Mist is for sale. With the downturn in the US construction industry, gypsum shipments from Hantsport, NS have virtually ceased. What little traffic there is can be handled easily by Atlantic Towing Ltd, with tugs from its Saint John, NB base. (A recent call by Gypsum Centennial was handled by Atlantic Hemlock.)

Spanish Mist was built in 1981 by S.L. Ardeag of Bilbao, Spain as Ebro, but was renamed Reus on completion. In 1994 it was renamed Ole Rabudal, but was soon sold to Fundy Gypsum, the operating entity at Hantsport, as replacement for their venerable Otis Wack.

Fitted with a 2610 bhp V-18 B&W main engine, driving a single controllable pitch screw in a steering nozzle, the tug was a major boost from the Wack's 1200 bhp.

In May 1995, the newly renamed Spanish Mist arrived in Hantsport for the first time after a refit in Meteghan, NS.

Hantsport is an unusual assignment for a tug. The gypsum berth and the pier where the tug ties up are at the head of the Minas Basin, on the Avon River, where tides exceed 45 feet, and dry out at low tide. The tug must get underway to meet a ship on the tide prior to the ship's arrival. It meets the ship well out in Minas Basin and when the next tide begins to flood in, it accompanies the ship to the pier and holds it alongside. The tug master usually boards the ship to act as berthing master and pilot.

The ship can only load in the last of the flood tide and must leave the berth at high tide or it will not reach deep water in time. This leaves only a two to three hour loading window. (The loaders can dump 10,000 tonnes per hour into the ships!). The ships load to about 31.5 foot draft and sail on the high tide whether fully loaded or not. The tug therefore must be powerful enough to tow the ship out if it has any engine problems.

The tug then works the ship off the berth and usually accompanies it out in to the Basin. It must await the next tide to return to its berth, and tie up before it is stranded. It has therefore been away form its berth for three tides. The port is usually closed for some time each winter due to ice.

Spanish Mist has been well maintained by USG Canadian Mining Ltd, and now CGC Inc (the successive names of the gypsum operations, all of which are subsidiaries of United States Gyspum.) In 2001 she went into a major refit at Meteghan and emerged with a new 8 cylinder Cat rated at 2839 bhp.

The tug has now been removed from service and offered for sale. A standby master and engineer are on board, but as described above, when tug services are needed, they are provided by Atlantic Towing Ltd.

For some great photos of gypsum operations (and some wonderful farm tractors!) see:

http://shippingontheavonriver.blogspot.com/

Update: As you will see frm the comment below, the tug was no longer for sale as of November 1. What changed?

Trespasses Forgiven

1. The No Trespassing sign does not apply to tugs of Atlantic Towing.

2. In the background, Rowan Gorilla 3 preempts Atlantic's normal berthing spaces.

Atlantic Larch tied up at the Svitzer Canada dock this afternoon. This is the first time since the August departure of Svitzer's tugs for the Strait of Canso that Atlantic Towing has used the pier. With the arrival of the drilling rig Rowan Gorilla 3 last week, Atlantic's normal berthing space at Woodside has been partially preempted. Atlantic Larch initially moved to pier 24, but since there is no shore power there, it must be an inconvenient location. I noted them taking fuel yesterday at pier 24, but early this afternoon the tug showed up at Svitzer's.

With the formation of Halifax Marine Towing LP (a joint venture between Svitzer and Atlantic) the Svitzer pier has been empty - a real loss to the accessible Halifax waterfront- let's hope activity returns and we will once again see tugs coming and going from downtown Halifax.

Canadian built tugs - for the history books?

Atlantic Fir and Atlantic Larch were tasked with unberthing the container ship Arsos this afternoon. Fleetmates Atlantic Oak and Willow were berthing Fidelio at Autoport at the same time. All four tugs were built in Canada by Irving Shipbuilding for Atlantic Towing. Both companies are owned by the Irving group, and so one would expect that they might cross-pollinate to an extent.

However other Canadian tug owners ( including Groupe Océan, which also builds smaller tugs for itself at its own yard) among others, have also had tugs built by Irving at its Eastisle facility in Georgetown PEI. The yard has also built numerous tugs for export-all from the same basic Robert Allan Ltd design.

However with the recent announcement that the 25% duty on foreign built ships has finally been dropped, the yard may be in for some stiff competition. Please note the tarif reduction does not (yet) apply to tugs.

Seaspan, the large west coast tug operator, which is part of the Washington Marine group - which also owns very capable shipyards, has just placed an order for four tugs in Turkey. Granted Turkey has a very fine reputation for building Canadian designed tugs, (Robert Allan Ltd of Vancouver is the premier tug designer in the world), but building tugs in Turkey for Vancouver would be even more attractive without duties and foreign yards would certainly be more competitive for Canadian orders in the future.

For more on this topic see Shipfax.

The New Era

Atlantic Larch lets go after working Suez Bridge off pier 42.

Halifax Marine Towing Limited Partnership (A Joint Venture of Atlantic Towing Ltd and Svitzer Canada) now provides all ship berthing in Halifax, using the tugs of Atlantic Towing Ltd.

Another Svitzer Update

Part of the deal that will have Atlantic Towing in control of tug services in Halifax, is the bareboat charter of the tug Point Halifax (seen above in our masthead) to Atlantic Towing.
Svitzer will thus be down to three tugs, all at Point Tupper.
Point Halifax may therefore be seen in Halifax, but it will be controlled and crewed by Atlantic Towing.

The annoucement

The announcement finally made the papers today that Svitzer Canada and Atlantic Towing have formed a joint venture for port tug services in Nova Scotia. Svitzer will handle the Strait of Canso and Atlantic Towing will handle Halifax.

There is a sad note to this, in that Svitzer and its predecessors Eastern Canada Towing, Foundation Maritime and Halifax Towboat, going back over a period of over a hundred years, have provided tugs continuously in Halifax and from the same location.
There is also an irony as well, for it was the original Gulf Oil refinery in Point Tupper (which is now the NuStar terminal, and no longer a refinery) and the Shaheen refinery in Come-by-Chance, Newfoundland, that brought Smit &Cory International to Canada. Smit & Cory formed Eastern Canada Towing (Ectug) and acquired the assets of Foundation Maritime in 1971. Smit eventually bowed out of the partnership and Cory was eventually taken over by Wijsmuller then Svitzer.

It was obvious when Atlantic Towing made the move into Halifax five years ago that something would have to give. Neither company was making enough money to support the number of tugs here. There were as many as eight tugs here at one time, but for the first year or two it was a standoff as Irving syphoned off more and more business from Svitzer.
Eventually both companies found a way to cooperate to "borrow" each others tugs as needed so that ships were always served. But there was still far too much idle time for tugs and crews.
Svitzer found some outside work for some of their tugs, such as winter work in Freeport Bahamas for Svitzer's parent company. But this was certainly less than successful last year when Point Halifax was seriously damaged in ice in the Belle Isle Strait and Svitzer Bedford had an engine room fire off Quebec City.

The new joint venture will put Svitzer in as operators at NuStar in Point Tupper - a fit that is better for the parent Svitzer, which specializes in terminal tugs around the world. Svitzer needs at least one new tug, but could not support such an investment based on current business in Halifax. Their businesses in Baie Comeau and Sept-Iles suffered from the recession and both also need investment in new tugs. Perhaps with the losses in Halifax now at an end, they can begin to plan for that. It seems likely with this new announcement that Point Halifax, when it is again operational, will be deployed in Point Tupper and Quebec, as Svitzer will have no presence in Halifax.

Atlantic Towing very much wants a presence in Halifax due to their parent Irving's shipyard and the tanker traffic here, much of which services Irving Oil, directly or indirectly.
As the only tug operator in Halifax, they will need four or more tugs here. It will be interesting to see how they accomplish this as their resources are spread fairly thin now.

Svitzer will be sending Point Chebucto, Svitzer Bedford and Point Valiant off to Point Tupper next week. As of today Atlantic Towing has only Atlantic Oak in Halifax.

Changes coming

1. Svitzer Bedford and Atlantic Oak head out to berth Algoma Guardian.

Big changes are coming in the tug business in Halifax by the end of July.

On August 1 Svitzer will be taking over the tug contract at NuStar Energy in Port Tupper on the Strait of Canso. The contract, long held by Atlantic Towing, was won by Svitzer in a recent competitive bid. NuStar (formerly known as Statia Terminals) has been operating since 1992 and provides petroleum and chemical storage. It accommodates some very big tankers and operates as a transhipment point for crude oil from Newfoundland to US and Canadian ports. I t also has storage facilities for gasoline, gasoline components, furnace oil, diesel oils and butane.

Svitzer Canada (Eastern Canada Towing Ltd) will station three tugs there, namely Svitzer Bedford, Point Chebucto and Point Valiant. While the tugs will be stationed at Point Tupper, they will also provide tug services for other customers in the Strait area, including Georgia Pacific Gypsum, Martin Marietta's stone quarry at Cape Porcupine (Auld's Cove), tug assistance for the Canso lock and for US Gypsum's operation at Grand Narrows on the Bras d'Or Lake.

Meanwhile back in Halifax, Svitzer will have Point Halifax, when it returns to service. (It is still undergoing rebuilding of its thrusters after last August's accident) and one other tug "not currently in its fleet and yet to be identified"

Meanwhile, Atlantic Towing will redeploy at least one of its Point Tupper tugs to Halifax, and possibly two.

While the statement has been made that Halifax is not a six tug port, it is hard to imagine it working with only four. So many ships arrive and depart all at the same time, that there may be delays if the tugs are not available right when needed, and no shipping companies will want delays.

As it stands now, Svitzer and Atlantic Towing provide tugs to each other as needed, and that will need to continue.

Atlantic Hemlock drops in

Atlantic Hemlock arrived at the IEL pier in Dartmouth to supplement Atlantic Towing's harbour fleet. Fleet mate Atlantic Oak has been away in Newfoundland working since before Christmas, so Hemlock will bring the fleet up to three again, with Atlantic Spruce and Atlantic Larch.

Built in 1996, Atlantic Hemlock has 4,00bhp compared to the 5,000 bhp of the Oak, and carries no firefighting gear.

She has thin film of frozen spray on her from the trip, and still carries one of the aluminum guard plates on a wheelhouse window. Her winch is also enclosed by a tarp.

She is normally based in Saint John, New Brunswick, but does get around to other locations from time to time, and made a round trip to Europe in 2000 to promote sales. She was in Rotterdam and at the International Tug & Salvage Conference in St.Malo, France. The trip was successful as several of her yard mates have been sold to a variety of European owners.