YOUR PROPULSION EXPERTS
With a bollard pull of 54 tons the "WULF 9" offers a broad range of applications – such as harbour and deepsea towage, salvage, tugboat and pontoon chartering as well as sea transport of heavy goods.
SCHOTTEL GmbH has successfully carried out a control upgrade on a seagoing and harbour tug equipped with azimuth thrusters from another market supplier. Instead of replacing the entire propulsion system (including mechanics and hydraulics), only the obsolete controls were swapped out. Thanks to the crucial expertise of the SCHOTTEL service team, the owner was offered maximum, state-of-the-art benefits.
In order to comply with the latest class requirements, the German vessel owner was forced to modernize the “WULF 9”, a 30-year-old ASD tugboat. Since the required spare parts were obsolete, an alternative had to be found.
Work of two weeks extended lifecycle by up to 20 years
“Instead of offering intensive and expensive complete rebuilds, SCHOTTEL proved convincing with a customized solution. In addition to the comparatively low conversion costs and the short downtime, it was above all the cooperative partnership and the regional proximity between our location and the SCHOTTEL production site in Northern Germany that proved decisive”, states owner and operator Andreas Wulf. “Within two weeks, the lifecycle of the vessel’s electric components was extended by up to twenty years – always safe in the knowledge that SCHOTTEL, as an OEM, is able to equip the “WULF 9” for the next decades.”
Reducing costs with customized swap-out
The efficient and long-term solution from SCHOTTEL ensures that it will be possible use the “WULF 9” reliably in future. Since the replacement of the obsolete electronics could be carried out by a local electronics company, it was possible to significantly reduce costs. Thanks to the lower expense for installation, the conversion time and thus the downtime could be shortened tremendously. Another major advantage is the long-term availability of spare parts, which SCHOTTEL ensures for the coming decades – thus reducing the off-hire risk significantly.
Along with the new control units, the German tug was also given new driving modes. These modes enable the tug owner to optimize the vessel’s operation. This allows operations to be performed more efficiently and comfortably.
Built in the late 1980s
The “WULF 9”, built at Norwegian Båtservice Verft A/S in 1988, is one of five tugs in owner Andreas Wulf’s fleet. With a bollard pull of 54 tons, the 33.3 m long and 10.0 m wide tug offers a broad range of applications – such as harbour and deepsea towage, salvage, tugboat and pontoon chartering as well as sea transport of heavy goods.
