Welcome Tug Ōtepoti

Tug Ōtepoti received a Bond movie star’s welcome, when she arrived into the Otago Harbour yesterday (12 February).

The four-person Damen crew onboard the $15m 70-tonne Damen ASD 2312 tug was greeted by a lone piper at the end of the Aramoana mole as they passed at 0900. Ōtepoti was then joined by the port’s marine fleet and made her way up the Lower Harbour, past gathered groups of people, waving and welcoming the weary crew. When she reached the Port Chalmers basin, Port Otago kaimahi were out on the wharf, welcoming the their newest team member alongside – 32 days and 6070 nautical miles after departing Zhangjiagong on 9 January.

GM Marine & Infrastructure Grant Bicknell says the tug looked outstanding, given the length of her voyage. “The crew was very glad to see the Taiaroa Lighthouse.

When we asked them how the tug had handled the trip, they said one of the window wipers wasn’t working. The fact that was the only issue is testament to the care taken by many people from many countries to build the tug, and the high level of supervision by Port Otago’s Marine team during the build.”

The new tug is one of four essential components enabling the port to be big-ship capable. The other three components needed to handle container vessels up to 10,000TEU and larger bulk ships are already in place: the Multipurpose Wharf (430m long, berth depth 14m); consent to deepen the Lower Harbour channel to 15m; and the new $36m dredge being delivered later this year.

Modelling showed that, to manoeuvre larger vessel in the Port Chalmers swing basin and onto the Multipurpose Wharf, two 70-tonne bollard-pull tugs were required. The Ōtepoti joins the existing Damen 70-tonne bollard pull Tug Taiaroa (2014) and Tug Arihi (2016) of 30-tonne bollard pull.