Med Marine and Robert Allan to design hybrid, electric tugboats

Canadian naval architectural company Robert Allan and Turkish shipbuilder and tugboat operator Med Marine have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to design electric and hybrid tugs.

As disclosed, the agreement was signed in Istanbul on 24 March this year. Specifically, the partners will work on VoltRA series of tugboats.

Med Marine named its electric tug series under the registered brand of VoltRA series. The tugboats have a range of from 21 meters up to 30 meters in various lengths and designs.

The vessels will feature hybrid and electric propulsion systems to reduce carbon emissions and meet the net-zero goals.

Med Marine has been cooperating with the Canadian firm since 1995. The companies have cooperated on many projects and around 200 RAL design tugs were constructed so far.

“As Med Marine, we are always in pursuit to seek and be ready for forthcoming challenges to serve our clients best with the latest features that technological advancements offer… Once again, we have aligned with RAL for the design of these advanced technological electric and hybrid tugboats,” Med Marine’s CEO Hakan Şen commented.

Med Marine has been pursuing clean energy projects in the last period. The firm is working also on methanol dual-fuel tugboat designs.

The design received an approval in principle (AiP) from classification society RINA in October last year. The vessel design features 24.25 meters of length, with a draft of 3.75 meters. It will have a bollard pull of around 40 tonnes.