Robert Allan Ltd.’s RAmparts 3200 tugs…a “century” of progress
April 12, 2012
Early in 2012, Cheoy Lee Shipyards, Hong Kong, was awarded a contract from a South American client for three new RAmparts 3200CL class tugs. This marks a significant milestone for the popular RAmparts 3200 design as the order includes the 100th tug to be delivered to this design. There are few designs in the world work boat market to achieve this milestone in such a short time.
The RAmparts 3200 design originated from a Robert Allan Ltd. internal R&D program back in the early 2000’s. The concept behind the RAmparts series of designs was to provide owners and smaller shipyards alike with a series of high-performance, well-proven ship-handling tug designs which could be built competitively in the worldwide tugboat market. Incorporated into these designs are all the features that have distinguished other advanced tugs from Robert Allan Ltd., including high speed, excellent stability, sea keeping, enhanced astern performance and manoeuvrability. The RAmparts 3200 design, together with other RAmparts family members, has proven that this idea has been successful and has benefited the work boat industry.
Sanmar of Turkey has the distinction of building the first RAmparts 3200 tug Achille Onorato to Rimorchiatori Sardi, Italy in 2004. The most recent deliveries, from ASL, Singapore, were the RiverWijs Emma and RiverWijs Rowan to RiverWijs, Australia. In between, more than a dozen shipyards in Turkey, China, South-East Asia, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and South America have been involved in the construction of tugs to variations of this design. Table 1 below shows the growth of the design with time. Table 2 indicates the areas of operation of these tugs at the time of delivery.
Achille Onorato; first RAmparts 3200 built (2004)
Riverwijs Rowan; latest delivery (January 2012) of the RAmparts 3200 series
Table 1: RAmparts 3200: Vessels by year of construction
| Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012, under construction/ on order Total |
No. 1 2 1 4 10 15 23 13 12 19 100 |
Table 2: RAmparts 3200 Tugs: Area of Operation
| Operation Area at Delivery Europe Asia Middle East Australia / New Zealand South America North America Unknown Total |
No. 35 26 11 6 4 2 16 100 |
The construction history of the RAmparts 3200 as illustrated in Table 1 highlights the crests and troughs of the marine industry in the last few years: from a couple of RAmparts 3200 tugs in 2004 to the peak of 23 units in 2009 and then back to a stable rate of about a dozen boats annually since 2010. The good news is that there will be about 15 more tugs built to this design to be delivered in 2012, hopefully a harbinger of better times in the future!
As this design has continued to evolve and has been adapted to meet the needs of various specific Clients, two distinct sub-series have evolved; the RAmparts 3200W (a wide beam version for higher powers) and the RAmparts 3200CL, a design uniquely developed for our good Client, Cheoy Lee Shipyards.
Typical main particulars of the RAmparts 3200 design are as follows:
| LOA Breadth Depth GRT Bollard pull Fuel oil Fresh water Foam Dispersant Crew |
32 – 32.55 m 11.6 – 12.4 m 5.4 m < 500 up to 100 t 220 m³ 65 m³ 10 m³ 10 m³ up to 14 |
For further information on the RAmparts series or any other high-performance tug designs, please contact us at design@ral.ca.