On November 18, 2019, Jin Gang Lun 33 proudly left the Shanghai Harbour Fuxing Shipping Service Company shipyard and safely arrived at her home port of Tianjin Port on November 21. She is joining the Port’s tugboat fleet and serves the main roles of harbour towing, berthing and unberthing visiting vessels.

Following Jin Gang Lun 31 and Jin Gang Lun 32 which were delivered to Tianjin Port early this year, Jin Gang Lun 33 is also custom designed in Canada by the Vancouver based naval architects Robert Allan Ltd. The vessel will obtain CCS Notation of I (intelligent)-ship with sub-notation of “M” – intelligent machinery space; “N” – intelligent navigation; “E” – intelligent energy management; “I” – intelligent integral platform.

Jin Gang Lun 33 and her sister ship which is currently under construction and will be delivered by the same yard soon, both have a newly developed hull form. Operational safety of the vessel will be enhanced significantly with innovative design characteristics, upgraded automatic control, onboard and land-based monitoring systems to optimize vessel navigation and machinery space equipment operation, etc. Maintenance costs will be reduced by the digital data collection and malfunction analysis during operations. A real-time computerized fuel consumption data analysis system will guide the vessels operations while using the most efficient fuel consumption conditions.

Jin Gang Lun 33 measures 34.60 m in length and 11.20 m in beam. The maximum navigational draft of the vessel is only 3.92 m, making it suitable to operate in shallow water. Gross tonnage of the vessel is under 500.

The tugs were designed and constructed to satisfy all applicable Rules and Regulations of Chinese Classification Society:

★ CSAD, Tug, Coastal Service, Ice Class B, ★ CSMD, BRC

Average/maximum trial results were as follows and meet Owner’s requirements:

• Bollard pull, ahead: 51 t
• Free running speed, ahead: 13.1 knots

The vessel has been designed to the highest standards of outfitting for an operating crew of up to ten.

The tug has been outfitted for safe and efficient performance of ship assist, harbour towing and fire-fighting duties. The deck machinery comprises a Karmøy hydraulic hawser winch on the bow, spooled with 200 m of Ø100 tow line on the drum. Two individual anchor windlasses are provided at bow. A towing hook is provided on aft deck for coastal towing duties.

Main propulsion comprises of a pair of Daihatsu, diesel engines, each rated 1,471 bkW at 750 rpm, and driving a Kawasaki KST-180ZF/E Z-drive unit with Ø2200 propeller. The tug’s fire-fighting system includes a 1,500 m³/hour FFS pump driven by the port main engine front end power take off via gearbox and clutch.

For suitable operation as a ship assist tug, fenders and tires are provided.