Blessing of Most Powerful Canadian Tug

Ocean has proceeded with the blessing of its newest tug Ocean Tundra, built at Ocean Industries shipyard, located on Isle-aux-Coudres, Canada. The traditional blessing ceremony was held in the presence of the president and the first vice president and general manager of Ocean, Gordon Bain and Jacques Tanguay, as well as Sophie Piette, first female pilot on the St. Lawrence and godmother of the ship.

“We are proud to have built such a complex tug and of a scope never before seen in Canada. Again, Ocean has surpassed itself to install larger equipment. There is no longer any doubt about the ingenuity of our team, and our desire is to go even further in the future” said Tanguay.

“The Ocean Tundra is the most powerful harbor tug ever built in Canada, for which you will find none or very few equivalents in the world. It could have been built at lower costs abroad. However, with the support of the governments of Canada and Quebec as well as our commitment, we got our people here at home to construct it. Thus, a little more than 160 direct jobs were retained for 14 months" said Tanguay.

The construction of this tug was made possible, in particular, due to the financial support from Industry Canada through its Structured Finance Facility program. This grant to Océan Remorquage Côte-Nord, who ordered the ship worth $24 million, represents nearly 15 per cent of the construction cost. The construction also received financial support from the ministère des Finances et de l’Économie du Québec through its program de crédit d’impôt remboursable pour les constructeurs de navires.

This 36-meter tug is equipped with the most modern technology and will operate in the most extreme conditions. The hull of the tug is reinforced and certified 1A Super FS for navigation in ice and its engines will develop 8,160 BHP. It is powered by two omnidirectional Z-drive propellers with a total bollard pull of approximately 100 TM.

By choosing the first female pilot on the St. Lawrence, we wanted to pay tribute to the daily work of the pilots that make navigation on the St. Lawrence safer. With increasingly larger ships, the Ocean Tundra will be able to provide an active escort service tailored to the needs of industry, and in safe conditions, "said Bain.

The new tug, ultra powerful, efficient and versatile, will soon be assigned to berthing operations and departure of ships and put to work for escort services, towing on short and long distance as well as rescue operations and recovery of shipwrecks.