(ROTTERDAM, Netherlands) — Radio Holland has been awarded a 10-vessel managed service agreement (MSA) from ALP Maritime Services BV. Established in January 2010, ALP is a specialist in ocean towing, offshore positioning and mooring of floating platforms, heavy transport and salvage operations. The company is part of the Teekay Offshore group.
ALP Chief Operating Officer Leo M. Leusink, one of the founders of the company, explained why it chose Radio Holland as its service partner. “Our ships sail all over the world. We need a good, reliable partner for our navcom equipment to help us serve our customers in the oil and gas industry. We chose this contract because we are active in tramping. Our ships go everywhere; we never know exactly which ports they will call at. As a result, we need a high level of support and maintenance and global coverage. We believe Radio Holland can provide that.”
“I have a long history with Radio Holland, actually dating back more than 35 years when I worked on the tug boats of Smit Internationale in 1980. Radio Holland provided the NavCom service and maintenance,” he said.
Ever since the beginning of ALP, the company had dreamed about building its own ships, Leusink adds. Together with Ulstein Design, it started designing the ALP Future class — anchor handling and tugboats with a bollard pull of around 300 tonnes and dynamic positioning capability — in September 2011.
“When we started designing the ALP Future class we requested Radio Holland to equip the vessels with navcom equipment,” Leusink said.
In February 2014, with the help of its new owners Teekay Corp. Ltd., ALP awarded Niigata Shipbuilding and Repair Inc. a contract to build the four vessels. The first two are expected to be delivered in August 2016 and December 2016 and the following two in 2017.
In 2015, ALP took over six traditional-style tugs (200-300 tonnes bollard pull) from Harms Offshore and it got in touch with Radio Holland. “The six tugs, as well as the four newbuild vessels are covered by the managed service agreement with Radio Holland,” Leusink said.
