Greek salvage boss stations 'supertug' in SA

Ray Smuts
THE BATTLE lines have been drawn for supremacy in the lucrative salvage and other marine business with the world's most powerful tug being based permanently in Cape Town.
Salvage off the South African coastline has been fair game for any company with the right know-how and back-up so foreign tugs are hardly an unfamiliar sight in these waters. The lion's share of the pickings has however gone to Cape Town-based salvage giant Smit (formerly Pentow Marine) over the years, with its formidable transocean towing tugs John Ross and Wolraad Woltemade in operation since the mid-1970s.
Now Greek salvage boss Andreas Tsavliris, having joined forces late last year with South African black empowerment company Diving and Salvage Projects, has brought the huge Nikolay Chiker to claim a slice of what must be a highly lucrative industry.
Tsavliris, in Cape Town recently for the introduction of the Chiker, says the company is aware contracts currently in force are nearing their end and that the intention is to compete once they are renewed. Government contracts up for grabs would include wreck removal, coastal environmental protection and coastal salvage response.
Fezekile Mahlati, m.d. of Diving and Salvaging Projects, has confirmed that enquiries have already started coming in for the tug's services, which may be as diverse as handling oil from stranded ships, undertaking contract tows, dive and oil field support and search and rescue.
Godfrey Needham, master mariner and owner of Offshore Maritime Services in Cape Town, told FTW that as an independent broker he was delighted to see competition. "Assertions that there is not enough work for two companies are garbage."
To prove his point Needham says both the Ross and the Woltemade are currently deployed elsewhere in the world and that if a disaster were now to occur off the South African coast the Chiker would be the only tug in place.
The 5250 gross ton, 98-metre long, Nikolay Chiker was built in 1990 and is owned by the Russian Federation Navy but managed and operated by Tsavliris. His Athens-based company owns more than 30 ships including seven other tugs. The Chiker has a sister ship, the Fortiy Krylov, permanently stationed in the Azores.