Curaçao Towage Company Expanding Fleet
The Curaçao Towage Company, a subsidiary of the Curaçao Ports Authority is expanding its tugboat fleet with a new Arrival to the family. Two years ago CTC celebrated the arrival of two new tugboats, the ‘Ola’ and ‘Manta’. With the arrival of these two tugboats the CTC was better able to meet the growing demands of tugboat assistance. However, this increase has risen to such a high level that the management decided to invest in yet another tugboat.
 
Model
The new tugboat is a DAMEN ASD 2810 model and will be the second of its kind on CTC’s tugboat fleet. The first ASD 2810 type tugboat was the ‘Ola’, with 4930 BHP and 58.7 ton Bollard Pull. As with the ‘Ola’, this new tugboat will be assigned to towage jobs in the Caribbean and its immediate surroundings.
The Curaçao Towage Company has been working with the ASD 2810 model for a few years now and has had good results with this model. Damen has also noted that this model has had tremendous success on the market to date.
MERO
As is both tradition and law, the tugboat needed a name. To choose one, the personnel of the Curacao Ports Authority, the Curacao Towage Company and the Curacao Pilots Organization participated in a competition to arrive at a name for the tugboat. The main requirement was that the new name should be associated with underwater flora and fauna, as was the case with ‘Ola’ (meaning: wave) and ‘Manta’(meaning: stingray). The winning name from the competition was ‘MERO’, a fish typical of our waters, and also a delicious ‘catch of the day’ on many menus in Curaçao.
More
The Curaçao Ports Authority, and in particular the Curaçao Towage Company, are very proud of this latest expansion of the fleet, which clearly shows the growing success of the company which has managed to acquire an increasing number of local and especially international jobs of late. This only serves as further proof of its exceedingly high levels of professionalism and reliability at sea. The MERO will be delivered in the last quarter of 2008.