On Friday the 30th May 2008 the largest offshore structure in the Mediterranean was positioned 12 nautical miles off the Ravenna coast in 25-metre depth water in order to test a “bollard pull”. The zone basically is a special area equipped for the testing of power and efficiency of tugboats, whose pulling capacity can be verified and certified.
It was in this innovative offshore field, projected by Lucatelli company in Trieste on behalf of the Ravenna Port Authority, that the largest plastic mooring buoy in the world was placed. It is a 20-ton maxi Resinex float with 58 ton of net buoyancy, and measures 6 metres in width by 3,5 metres in height.
How does it work? The boats in question are hooked to the bollard pull maxi float, which in turn is controlled through an instrument which measures the load.
The jumbo buoy is a Catamaran Resinex type, it was especially projected by our technical department in order to minimize the oscillations in relation to the behaviour of the tugboats.
The floatability and unsinkability are guaranteed by 24 plastic modules which are inserted in a steel structure which also hosts the balancing bollard pull levers.
The buoy is equipped with a Marimatech 250-ton quick release hook. On the hook there is a load cell, which measures with precision the mooring line tension.
The equipment is rounded off by a reception transmission system, which communicates load data to the portable control unit positioned on the tugboat. The system, besides the precise monitoring of forces, is also able to release the hook from distance.
The big catamaran buoy is visible both day and night thanks to a Pharos Marine, marine lantern and a ATONIS T3000 transponder.
