Summer 2019 was starting when our client Aksoy Gelibolu Shipyard called us to propose a big challenge: to design an Ice Class Ultra Shallow Draft tug with a bollard pull of 25t with 1.8m draft to operate in the Caspian Sea. Challenge accepted!

However, the project was complicated, and the deadline was critical as we needed the ship in the water in the early spring of 2020. No delays nor mistakes were allowed, every day would be critical to ensure the success of the project. A proper project management and very fluid communications between shipowner, shipyard, Classification Society, and the technical office are strictly necessary when deadlines are so tight. Every decision had to be made almost immediately.

In the initial phase, an express design of the structure was made, allowing the first steel order to be placed one month after the basic design had just kicked off. The main equipment such as engines, gearboxes, cranes or deck equipment were also defined in the first weeks of the project as delivery times are usually around 6-8 months.

Weight control represented another challenge, especially on a vessel with a minimum draught of only 1.8m. All weights were monitored throughout the conceptual design up to construction and launching stages. The detail design started almost at the same time as the preliminary midship section was reviewed by the classification society. Therefore, the Caspian Fauna keel laying ceremony become real in November 2019, just three months after the vessel design started.

Since that moment, both teams, the shipyard and the technical office, worked hard together to build and finish the new vessel on time. Launching was expected to be mid march 2020, however the global COVID pandemic forced the Shipyard to modify the schedule. Therefore, the ship outfitting was done before the launching instead of at the quay. The vessel was finally launched on April the 24^th.

In June 24^th 2020 she successfully passed the Bollard Pull (BP) trials, obtaining 25.24t of BP and fulfilling the contract requirement of 25t of BP.

Finally, 1^st of July 2020 the owner, Caspian Offshore Construction, heads its new vessel to Aktau Port in Kazakhstan.

The success of this project is to a great extent due to coordinated work carried out between the Turkish, Kazakhstani and Spanish teams. Flexibility and efficiency from all sides with the common aim of finishing the vessel on time.

Caspian Fauna main particulars are as follows:

• LOA: 30.00 m
• LPP: 28.00 m
• B: 11.00 m
• D: 3.20 m
• T min: 1.80 m
• Crew: 10p
• Power: 2 x 970 kW
• Two propellers with reduction gear
• Bollard pull: 25 ton
• Speed: 10.5 kn
• Deck crane 2t @10m
• Bow thruster
• Towing/anchor handling winch with double drum: 25t @9.5m/min- 10t@19m/min
• I + HULL + MACH, TUG – Unrestricted Navigation, ICE CLASS – 1D, AUT-UMS, ANCHOR HANDLING