Dredging company, Jan De Nul, has had 11 Damen Stan Tugs join its fleet in the last few years. In 2008, Jan De Nul placed an order for five additional Stan Tugs after another major order in 2007 when the Belgian firm ordered six Stan Tugs, as well as four Damen Fast Crew Suppliers. To be delivered over a period of 18 months, the five latest vessels have all been built at Albwardy Marine Engineering in Dubai, one of Damen’s joint venture shipyards in the Middle East.
With a Bollard Pull in excess of 15 tonnes and a speed of 11 knots, the vessels are equipped for assisting big hopper and cutter dredgers in many different operations. They can be used in connecting/disconnecting to the bow when it is necessary for the large dredgers to pump sand ashore or for smaller dredging jobs.
All five new Jan De Nul Stan Tugs have been delivered already. Three are still in Dubai and will later be deployed on various support jobs with the large cutters, presently being built in Croatia. One will join the huge Manifa Field Causeway project in Saudi Arabia and the fifth is destined to be involved in the extension works of the Panama Canal.
During the build of the last five Stan Tugs, Jan De Nul asked Damen to move the position of the exhaust pipes so these latest vessels look slightly different from the standard version.