Sanmar building seven more Battery Electric Powered “Tugs of the Future” with Corvus Batteries

Turkiye-headquartered tug and workboat builder Sanmar has started work on seven more of its award-winning, emissions-free battery electric powered ElectRA class tugs.Sanmar has experienced huge interest in these industry-leading ‘Tugs of the Future’ and, once built and delivered, these latest versions will bring the total number ground-breaking eco-friendly of ElectRA class tugboats in operation around the world to 14.

All based on exclusive-to-Sanmar designs from Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd, ElectRA class tugs come in a range of sizes (19-28m) and power outputs (40-85 TBP) and will have a major impact on cutting emissions where ever they operate.

All seven of the new ElectRAs under construction are based on the ElectRA 2500 SX design and measure 25.4m LOA with a 12.86m beam and 5.6m draft. Like all ElectRA tugs their environmentally-friendly credentials have been achieved without loss of performance or power, giving them impressive bollard pulls of 70 tons.

Four of the tugs are being built for an oil major, one for a repeat owner, and two on spec to help cater for the ever-growing demand that Sanmar is experiencing for these game-changing vessels. They will have Corus Orca energy storage systems and a back-up Caterpillar generator set to drive two azimuth thrusters at the stern producing a bollard pull of around 70 tonnes and a top speed of 12 knots.

Sanmar has already delivered three ElectRA tugs to HaiSea Marine for docking gas carriers at a new LNG export terminal at Kitimat in British Columbia, western Canada. ITS Tug of the year 2023, HaiSea Wamis, along with HaiSea Wee’Git and HaiSea Brave, were built to ElectRA 2800 SX design and ABS class with an overall length of 28 m, a moulded beam of 13 m and a draught of 6 m, plus a Corvus Orca with 5.3 MWh of batteries and two Schottel SRP 460L thrusters.

Sanmar has also built two ElectRA 2300 SX design tugs, SAAM Volta and Chief Dan George, operated by SAAM Towage at the Neptune coal export terminal on the west coast of Canada. These ABS-class, 23-m tugs have a beam of 12 m, a draught of around 6 m, a Corvus Orca system with 3.6 MWh of battery capacity and a bollard pull of 70 tonnes.

Earlier in 2024, Sanmar delivered BB Electra, an ElectRA 2200 SX version, to Buksér og Berging in Norway and started operating Dinamo 2023, an ElectRA 2300 SX, as part of its own fleet.