Crowley christens new ocean-class tugboat Ocean Sun

Oct. 16, 2014
As part of its new vessel build program, Crowley Maritime Corp. christened the latest of its four tugboats in the ocean-class series, Ocean Sun, on Oct. 15 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Offshore staff

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana – As part of its new vessel build program, Crowley Maritime Corp. christened the latest of its four tugboats in the ocean-class series, Ocean Sun, on Oct. 15 in Lake Charles. The ceremony served to formally welcome the fourth dynamic positioning 2 (DP2) tugboat to the company’s expanded ocean towing fleet, which has been involved in most of the major offshore oil production installations in the US Gulf of Mexico over the past 18 months.

TheOcean Sun, which features DP2 technology, is part of a four-vessel family of tugs ideally suited to work with Crowley's new 455 series high-deck strength barges, which measure 400 ft long by 105 ft wide (121.92 m long by 32 m long). Crowley’s ocean-class tugs are outfitted for long-range, high-capacity ocean towing, rig moves, platform and floating production, FPSO unit tows, emergency response, and firefighting.

All four of the ocean class tugboats are designed to have a minimum bollard pull of 150 metric tons (165 tons) and a range of approximately 12,600 nautical miles at 15 knots free running. They are outfitted with twin-screw, controllable-pitch propellers in nozzles and high-lift rudders for a combination of performance and fuel economy.

10/16/2014