Photo of the Week: Damen Tugs on Lone

The editor's pick for photo of the week is SAL Heavy Lift's vessel MV Lone as she delivers a cargo of Damen tugs and one multi-cat from Vietnam to the Port of Rotterdam.

Damen has developed a system of modular vessel cradles that, in combination with integrated lifting points on the tugs, results in safe and efficient loading and unloading of the vessels.

The high-speed, 160.5-meter (395-foot) DP2 Lone has a combinable lift capacity of 2,000 tons, more than 3,300m² deck space and a hold size of 107.1 x 17 x 13.7 meters. She has worked worldwide since her delivery from J. J. Sietas in Germany in 2010.

Lone entered the record books last year by achieving a 20 day transit between Batum in Indonesia and the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The 12,500dwt ship completed the 8,733 nautical mile voyage at an average speed of 19.3 knots.

In July this year, Bremen-based ship management firm Harren & Partner finalized a deal to acquire SAL Heavy Lift from Japanese shipping firm “K” Line. Harren & Partner is the owner of Combi Lift, a competing heavy lift operator, and the acquisition will give it a total of 26 vessels in this market segment. 

SAL Heavy Lift was founded in 1980 near Hamburg, and it has been part of the “K” Line Group since 2011. It has access to a fleet of 15 heavy lift ships. SAL will take over management of Combi Lift's CL 900 multipurpose ships, giving it the largest super heavy lift fleet in the world, with 12 vessels of 900 tons crane capacity or more. It will also assume management of the Combi Dock I and Combi Dock III, Combi Lift's unique combination crane / semisub / ro/ro vessels.