Innovation Winter 2025/26

SAAM Towage's Volia. P hoto : S anmar S hipyards

expected, and it can get very involved to figure out what’s even happening in the first place,” said Phillips. CFD efforts have expanded from purely tracking hydrodynamics to a number of different factors that model the ship’s behaviour holistically, from gas dispersion and underwater noise modelling. The extensive range of factors accounted for in the modelling has allowed the team to develop solutions for a wide range of different technologies. “The complexity of these alternative systems plays to our strengths,” Turner says. “As soon as you move away from straightforward designs, that’s very much our specialty.” Silence on the seas Once the first electric tugs entered service, boat operators began finding unexpected benefits to working on a fully electric system. “Performance wise, there are lots of advantages with how the vessels respond and the ability to maneuver,” said Turner. But there was another unexpected change: silent engines. “When the tugboats run on batteries, they’re exceptionally quiet,” Turner said. The difference was significant enough to require the captain's workflows to be reconfigured. “When they started running the electric motors, they had a hard time gauging the power because they were trained to listen for the engines revving up,” he said. “But on an electric boat, you don’t get that. They needed to look at the dials.” These adjustments in noise levels, while jarring, aided engineers in the design process.

Innovation Winter 2025/26

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