First Damen Tugs to be Built Under License in the USA

An agree­ment was signed at the 2016 New Orleans Work­boat Show between Damen Ship­yards Group and Great Lakes Ship­yard, USA, for the lat­ter to build two Stan Tugs 1907 ICE at its facil­i­ty in Cleve­land, Ohio. The ves­sels will be ICE Class and oper­at­ed by the yard’s affil­i­ate com­pa­ny, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny. The tugs will replace exist­ing ton­nage and this will be the first time that Damen tugs have been built under license in the USA.

Under the agree­ment, Great Lakes Ship­yard will receive full con­struc­tion, design and engi­neer­ing sup­port from Damen. To achieve the best pos­si­ble result, Damen will also pro­vide expert assis­tance based on its expe­ri­ence with con­struc­tion of two hun­dred Damen ves­sels built to the 1907 design.

The Stan Tug 1907 ICE was cho­sen on Damen’s proven design and fact-find­ing vis­its made by the man­age­ment of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny to Damen in the Nether­lands. Stan Tugs 1907 can be found oper­at­ing in loca­tions around the world includ­ing Rus­sia, Qatar and the Netherlands.

The part­ner­ship with Damen has pro­vid­ed Great Lakes Ship­yard with a port­fo­lio of proven ves­sel designs for use by its cus­tomers in the Unit­ed States. Most of the designs have been very refined, through the pro­gres­sion of mul­ti­ple builds. It is the high degree of refine­ment to the Stan Tug 1907 ICE design that will be of con­sid­er­able ben­e­fit to Great Lakes Ship­yard dur­ing the con­struc­tion process and to The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny in its use and oper­a­tion of the new tugs.