Page 64: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 1995)

ELECTRONICS UPDATE

SATCOMS

For Salvage

Today's tugs must be all-rounders, and Angli-can Duke, operated off the east coast of the U.K. by Lowestoft firm Klyne Tugs, is typical of the breed. The vessel is charged with a wide range of duties, including serving as an oceango- ing tow and performing rig moves, salvage work, or just plain odd-jobbing.

Although fully certified for oceangoing work,

Duke operates mainly around the U.K. coast and southern North Sea. "We prefer to keep her close to home," said

Operations Director Carl Beare.

But does a mainly local operating regime mean that the Inmarsat-A radome, so prominent above her wheelhouse roof, is just an adornment, or perhaps a now-superfluous relic from a previous incarnation?

Far from it. "The satcom is a vital piece of the operation," said Mr. Beare.

For Klyne Tugs, the Inmarsat-A serves two distinct requirements. It keeps the tugs, their tows and their progress at the forefront of their charterers' minds; and it allows the head office and the tugs to communicate privately.

Duke's charterers come mainly from the offshore world. "She's worked for Statoil,

Stena, Shell, Mobil,

Conoco and many of the big construction companies, such as

Balfour-Beatty," said

Mr. Beare. "A lot of them want a day-by-day report of where the tug is, what speed she's doing, what the weather is like, the fuel consumption, condition of the tow and so on."

Klyne finds the fax capability of Inmarsat-A invaluable for this kind of requirement. "We did a job for a company recently that gave us a standard form to be filled in each day. We simply put copies aboard the Duke, where the captain filled them in and faxed them directly to the charterer," explains Mr. Beare.

The daily report also keeps charterers and brokers at bay. "They used to say, "You've been so many days on this tow, where the hell's the tug?' But if they know the wind's been force seven or eight and there's been a four-meter swell, they know why there's a delay," said Mr.

Beare.

Duke is classed as an anchor handling tug supply vessel, or AHTS. At 141 ft. (43 m) long, 39 ft. (12 m) in breadth, 8,400 bhp and 100 tons bollard pull, she ranks as one of the largest in the southern North Sea, where power require- ments are continuing to rise. "In the southern North Sea, most rig moves now require a vessel of 80 to 100 tons bp," said

Mr. Beare. "A few years ago, 50 or 60 tons was adequate, but safety considerations have pushed

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