Leading towage and salvage specialist Multraship and its innovation arm, Novatug, have won the prestigious Maritime KVNR Shipping Award 2018 for their ground-breaking Carrousel RAVE TUG (CRT) design.

The award was presented to Leendert Muller, managing director of Multraship, on 12 November in Amsterdam during the Maritime Awards Gala, an annual event organised by the Stichting Maritime Awards Gala foundation representing Netherlands Maritime Technology, The Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KVNR), Royal Netherlands Society for Marine Technology (KNVTS), Maritime by Holland, and the Netherlands National Institute for Shipping and Shipbuilding (NISS).

The KVNR Shipping Award 2018 recognises a combination of successful realization and implementation with a vision for the future. The CARROUSEL RAVE TUG is a revolutionary design which makes it easier, safer and more environmentally friendly to work with seagoing vessels at much higher speeds than those which conventional tugs can achieve, and without the risk of capsizing. The CRT cannot capsize by towline force. It is cleaner and stronger, faster and safer. It uses the mass and momentum of the assisted ship to do its job.

Leendert Muller says, “We are delighted to have won the prestigious KVNR award. The CRT has been two decades in the making and its time has arrived. It not only represents a major improvement in terms of technology, performance and crew safety, but also results in much lower levels of fuel consumption than can be achieved with a conventional tug, resulting in savings of at least 40 per cent on an average operation.”