Seeing double

CJR partners with TOR Group (Tor Marine) for twin pilot boat deliveries.

Tor Marine has been at the forefront of modern ship construction for generations. From humble beginnings in the 1880s, the Torlak family has built a reputation as a leading shipbuilding and maintenance group, and today is highly regarded in its native Turkey and beyond.

That reputation for the highest standards and exacting adherence to delivery schedules was responsible for securing two of Tor Marine’s most recent projects – twin 27m pilot boats. The vessels were delivered just ten months after the original tender was produced and are now launched. Both boats, which feature a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, have now been delivered to Saudi Marcap’s for their operations in Ras Tanura refinery, located near the industrial port city of Jubail. Ras Tanura is the oldest refinery on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast and the location for 85 per cent of Saudi Aramco’s exports, making it one of the country’s busiest ports.

From the outset it was clear that the project presented several challenges, with a demanding set of performance and endurance requirements. The brief highlighted a need for the vessels to spend seven days at sea without being resupplied and be comfortable operating in waters with wave heights of up to 2.5 metres, to support ULCC and VLCC tankers that are mooring in Ras Tanura. To satisfy these requirements, Tor Marine, working with its partner Kort Propulsion, needed to find a supplier they could trust:

“With a top-of-class vessel, that’s going to be on the water for extended periods, we needed a specialist able to design and manufacture a complete propulsion and stern gear package to the agreed criteria. CJR Propulsion was selected based on its reputation for quality and performance, as well as the extensive ability of its design and manufacture teams, but its price was still highly competitive so they were the natural choice,” commented Kort Propulsion’s Managing Director, Dave Parsons.

Following selection and working to a tight time frame, CJR’s team set about designing a fully optimised, totally custom set-up which would meet the brief without reservation. The resulting package, which includes CJR’s cast propellers and rudders, and all related stern gear, was delivered on time and trialled in the waters of Istanbul using CJR’s TrialsApp, as Mark Russell, CJR Managing Director describes:

“Our highly technical approach to design and manufacture really comes into its own with projects involving multiple hulls of the same design. Sharing the investment across both vessels further maximises the value we are able to provide and obviously ensures identical performance. In this instance, the TrialsApp data we received following sea trials validated our design and performance predictions exactly – further demonstrating our accuracy and the repeatability of our designs.”

Both vessels feature identical dimensions, with a 26.8m LOA, a 7m beam and 2.5m draft. Each craft will displace 155 tons and have the capacity to carry over 20,000 litres (25 tons) of fuel to supply the twin 1.340 KW YANMAR 12 AYM-WGT engines, which will drive the five- bladed, Nickel-aluminium-bronze CJR propellers.

This combination gives a top speed of 18 knots fully loaded, which matches the original design specification. The hull shape, combined with the optimised propellers and stern gear,
is designed to be very economical at cruising speeds – an essential element of the original scoping document.

The spec:

  • Length overall (LOA) 27m
  • Breadth 7m
  • Depth 4.7m
  • Draught max 2.6m
  • Max speed 18knots
  • Fuel tank 25 tons
  • Fresh water 11.5 tons
  • Main engine 2 x yanmar 12aym-wgt
  • Generator 2x cat c4.4 58eKW
  • 2 x WC and shower
  • 2x WC
  • 3 x 2-man cabin
  • 1 x 4-man cabin