Point Valiant away

The tug Point Valiant sailed from Sambro, NS this evening May 17 on the first leg of its trip to its new home. Sold by Svitzer Canada, as reported last month, the tug was re-registered in Vancouver on May 15 to new owners Davies Tugboat Ltd of Burnaby, BC. The tug was slipped at Sambro where the hull was cleaned and repainted red, the fourth colour scheme for the tug.
 

It is now headed for Narragansett Bay, RI where it will be lifted aboard the heavy lift vessel believed to be Spliethoff's Fortunagracht. It will then get a luxury ride to British Columbia, possibly with some high priced yachts loaded in Newport, RI.

Built by Industrie Océan for Groupe Océan and to be named Océan Jupiter, it was sold while fitting out to Eastern Canada Towing in 1998 and named Point Valiant, the second tug in the fleet to carry that name. Fourteen tugs and workboats in the predecessor Foundation Maritime and in the ECTUG fleet had names beginning with the letter "V", starting in 1948 with Foundation Vera. This was the last tug to follow that tradition.

When Cory Towage Ltd, parent of Eastern Canada Towing Ltd, was taken over by Wijsmuller, the tug was repainted, but that did not last long.

The paint was barely dry when Svitzer took over the expanded Wijsmuller, and the tug was repainted again.

In 2010 the tug was transferred from Halifax along with three other Svitzer tugs to Point Tupper.   The tug was particulary useful in some of the tight pier spaces in Halifax. What it lacked in weight it made up for in agility. Last year when Svitzer Montreal arrived in Point Tupper, Point Valiant became redundant, as the lowest powered tug in the Svitzer Canada fleet. Most work there involves docking tankers and bulk cariers at open docks where power is the main requirement.

Its new owners will presumably find the tug an excellent worker.

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Point Valiant - long time no see - UPDATED

The Svitzer Canada dock in Halifax is usually devoid of tugs, since the entire Canadian fleet is based in Point Tupper, but it had a welcome addition this morning. The Point Valiant put in its first appearance in Halifax since the fleet was transferred in 2010. (Svitzer and Atlantic Towing Ltd formed two joint ventures: Halifax Marine Towing to service Halifax and Point Tupper Towing for the Strait of Canso with ATL tugs working Halifax and Svitzer tugs in the Strait.)

Built by Industrie Océan in Ile-aux-Coudres, Point Valiant was acquired by then Eastern Canada Towing  Ltd (ECTUG) while still under construction.  Intended to be Océan Jupiter for the parent company Groupe Océan, it was offered to ECTUG instead and delivered to Halifax in December 1998. It was the second in what was originally a class of four tugs designed by Robert Allan Ltd. One was sold overseas, and two, Océan Intrepide and Océan Jupiter remained with Groupe Océan.
Groupe Océan has since gone on to build two more tugs of the class, but with extended wheelhouse. All four work in the Port of Montreal. They are powered by Mitsubishi high speed engines giving 4,076 bhp.

The current Point Valiant is the second tug to carry the name,. The first was built as Foundation Valiant in 1963, became Point Valiant (i) in 1973 and  André H. in 1995 when ECTUG sold it to Trois-Rivières Boatmen. When Groupe Océan acquired that company from the Houde family, they retained the tug's name. When seen in Quebec City last summer, it was in need of a major refit.

UPDATE:
The current Point Valiant appears to be en route to Lunenburg for its own refit is en route to Sambro, NS where it will be slipped for pre-purchase survey. I have it on good authority that the tug has been sold to west coast owners and will be transported by heavy lift ship. Stand by for more updates!

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Call out for Wijsmuller tug

A group in Ijmuiden, Netherlands is looking for an old Wijsmuller tug to restore. They want to bring it back to Ijmuiden to pay tribute to the famous tugboat company. They have their aim set on four potential tugs in various parts of the world, all in dubious condition at this point. However based on the experience with other old Dutch tugs that have been restored, they may be on to a good thing.

We did not see many Wijsmuller tugs in Halifax, but in the fall of 1978 and again in 1980, Bureau Wijsmuller, as it was known then, based a tug in Halifax on standby for salvage work. They used the old Purdy's Wharf as their salvage station, but I don't think they got any business and the Wijsmuller logo was not seen in Halifax again until 2000.

Jacob van Heemskerk was stationed here in 1978. Built in 1964 it was a single screw (with nozzle) tug of 3550 bhp. It was sold to the Philippines in 1981, renamed Hurricane II and broken up in Manila in 1995.

 The slightly smaller Noord-Holland was stationed here in the autumn of 1980. Built in 1965 as a single screw tug of 2950 bhp, it was re-engined in 1970, had a nozzle added in 1971 and re-engined again in 1975 to 4200 bhp. It was sold in 1984 becoming Sierra and in 1989 it was sold again and renamed Asetec. It was sold at auction in 2001 and a rather cryptic note in Lloyd's 2013 says "whereabouts unknown."

On January 14, 2000 Wijsmuller stunned the tug world by buying the Cory Towage Group from Ocean Group plc, and thus Eastern Canada Towing (ECTUG) became a Wijsmuller company. The tugs were gradually repainted, with white superstructure, red visor, blue funnel with white stripe and black cap, blue mast and trim and  the "global link" logo prominently displayed.

By summer 2000 Point Chebucto was repainted except for the winch. Two Wijsmuller logos appeared on the bridge front.

Point Halifax in full Wijsmuller colours.

Point Valiant's winch remained in black paint.

Pointe Sept-Iles had its line reels painted blue, and a section of deck painted blue aft.

It was well into the year 2000 by the time this scheme was completed on most of the ECTUG fleet. In fact the smaller tugs were not completely repainted when in 2001 Svitzer, in another stunning move, swallowed Wijsmuller and the repainting started again!. First to go was the Wijsmuller logo, and the Svitzer cross appeared on the white stripe of the funnels, but it took a long time to completely repaint the tugs again.

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Tows can go wrong

 
Things can go wrong with tows, and I have covered a few here. I am not pointing fingers - it is a fact of life, but there are factors that can be pointed to as possible causes.
One big tow that went wrong, but without permanent damage, took place in 1980. On September 17 the Quebec tug Capt. Ioannis S. (now Océan Delta, see previous post) set out from Quebec City towing two retired Great Lakes ships, Helen Evans and Thornhill. Destination was the scrap yards in Mamonal, Columbia. Things went well until just off Halifax when the controllable pitch mechanism on the Capt. Ioannis S. went into reverse and severed one of the tow lines. 

The result was one ship in tow and another on the loose, and this was more than the Capt. Ioannis S. could handle by itself. Point Valiant (ex Foundation Valiant)(now André H.- see today's Shipfax) went out to assist on September 22. The crew was able to recover the severed tow line, which was hanging down in the water, and did not have to use the emergency pick up line. Fortunately conditions were calm - but foggy.
Capt Ioannis S. still had Thornhill on a string and was able to tow it in, arriving early on September 23, then stood by the as Point Valiant brought Helen Evans in later the same day.

Once in port Ectug mobilized its harbour fleet to bring the ships alongside. Point Viking, Point Vigour, and Point Valour all assisted.

The tug and tows remained in Halifax until October 16 when the fotilla set sail  and reached Columbia safely October 30.

Remarkably all these tugs remain in service today. Point Vigour is now McKeil's Molly M 1, Point Viking works in Quebec for Construction Polaris and Point Valour is stationed in Thunder Bay, ON.

News Flash: The newly elected Liberal provincial government of Nova Scotia says it will go it alone to start removal of the wreck of Miner, which has littered a beach on Scatarie Island since its tow line parted two years ago. It will chase the Conservative federal government for compensation later - good luck with that.

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Point Valiant - keeping busy

All tugs in Halifax have been kept very busy this week with the arrival of warships from several navies for the International Fleet Review, taking place next week.

Point Valiant is getting underway at noon time to assist in berthing a US navy ship at HMC Dockyard.

A frequently asked question: Why don't navy tugs berth visiting warships?

There are several answers:

1. Foreign warships are using civilian pilots. Civilian tugs work well with civilian pilots. Navy tugs usually only work with naval berthing pilots, and use different commands and terminologies. Radioed orders to the tugs must be understood and acted upon instantly, so there should never be confusion about meaning. This could happen with naval berthing pilots using civilian tugs.

2. Navy tugs are busy with their own work, which includes berthing Canadian navy ships, and other Dockyard work such as moorings, berthings, and shifting yard craft to support the naval ships. There aren't enough navy tugs to berth an onslaught of foreign naval craft.