On 1st August 2018 Luebeck based German tug owners J. Johannsen & Sohn have taken over a
newbuilding from Turkish Shipyard Med Marine in Eregli.
Named CLAUS she was built in a series of RA3200 newbuildings by Med Marine in 2017, finalized
on tailored demand of their new owners in 2018. RAmpart3200 is one of the hot selling models of
Canadian Design experts and market leasders Robert Allan Ltd., specially designed for harbour and
terminal assistence as well as coastal towages and offshore duties.
Johannsen was looking for a high quality product with very flexible usage though against newest
trends of the industry. The latest newbuildings for European tugowners show designs with decreased
dimensions, capacities and equipment sharpened for extra manouevrability in harbours.
„Our focus is flexibility containing harbour and offshore duties with almost best proven designs. A
pure harbour tug would limit our scope of services. With the new „CLAUS“ we can cover nearly all
requests in our areas and a bollard pull of 75 tons qualifies for assistance at biggest vessels or barges
and rigs“, says Michael Schaefer, 46, managing director and owner of J. Johannsen & Sohn. „For five
years we have engaged ourselves especially with this design and its appropriate arrangements.
Clients, potential employers and maritime surveyors are announcing an extraordinary feedback.“
The tug is equipped with an asd propulsion system of manufacturers Schottel units SRP 1515 cp in
combination with 2 x CAT 3512C main engines of Caterpillar and an output of 4200 kW.
A double front winch and an aft anchor towing winch including crane, towpins, diverse capstans and
a spooled spare wire under deck are mounted for towage and anchorhandling jobs. Fifi1 Firefighting,
an oil recovery system and a special escort notation rounds up the range of capabilities.
Nowadays J. Johannsen & Sohn offers its service all over Europe including the Mediterranean Sea.
Therefore „CLAUS“ is fully equipped and prepared.
Only last year the company purchased a comparable tug of similar design called „CARL“ with 52 t
bollard pull gaining the fleet to four units and following the companies expansion plans.
J. Johannsen & Sohn is still a family owned and fully independent small group of companies looking
back to a tradition of over 100 years, whilst the market is absorbing most of these companies in
consolidation processes.
Parallel to its growing towage branch J. Johannsen & Sohn observes a huge rise in their stevedoring
activities in the ports of Luebeck. Services for RoRo cargo handling, which were established in 2013,
have gained by 45% within the last 12 months and reaching out for an equal share of the annual
turnover compared to the towage section.