Port Otago's new $6million tug Arihi has formally been handed over to the port company and is expected to be delivered by the end of August, as deck cargo on a specialist cargo vessel.
The 18.7m Arihi, which boasts a 30-tonne bollard pull, will join Port Otago's other tugs Otago and Taiaroa (24m long), with respective bollard pulls of 58 tonnes and 68 tonnes, primarily to work with dredging operations for the port, chief executive Geoff Plunket said yesterday.
"Its main purpose will be for dredging work, towing the barge Hapuka, but also as a back-up.''
The 30-tonne Arihi is to be lifted on to a specialist Dutch vessel in Tuzla, Turkey, in mid-June, but that ship is yet to finalise at least two other port calls for cargo, so Arihi's arrival in Port Chalmers is not expected until August, he said.
The delivery vessel has cranes on board which will lift Arihi into the water at Port Chalmers.
Arihi had completed sea trials off Istanbul and formally been handed over to Port Otago. The delivery voyage would cost about $500,000, on top of the construction cost, Mr Plunket said.
Arihi is only slightly bigger than Port Otago's now retired and sold tugs Rangi and Karetai but will be able to assist Otago or Taiaroa as required for shipping movements.
"There's just not any spare tugs to charter,'' Mr Plunket said.
Port Otago and Port of Tauranga are the first two port companies in the country to start channel deepening, in expectation of the arrival of larger container ships, rising from 2500-4000 TEU (20ft equivalent unit) containers to 5000-8000 TEU ships.
The first phase of Port Otago's Next Generation dredging project has been completed, to a depth of 13.5m. It was expected phase two could be completed to a depth of 14m within 18 months.
Port Otago had bought the second-hand barge Hapuka from Queensland for the project.
The overall cost of channel and berth deepening and extra warehousing is about $30 million.
