Why are some tugs sailing astern?

[ombugge]

This tug has been seen always sailing “stern first” when moving to/from jobs:

Lot of people have been wondering why??:

The tugboat “Bruse” from Buksér and Berging AS at Aspevågen in Ålesund. Photo: Staale Wattø

Sunnmørsposten has received several inquiries about a red tugboat named “Bruse” which is constantly observed going astern on Aspevågen in Ålesund and elsewhere in the area.
The local paper takes its social mission seriously, and of course must find answers when readers wonder why the boat never moves forward.
Master Mads Gadegaard laughs when he hears why Sunnmørsposten is calling. There are many who wonder about this.

• It is true that we mostly only go downhill. There are actually two reasons, he begins to tell.
• One reason is the way the boat is built. The winches are at the back of the boat, and the propellers are located directly under the wheelhouse. This type of boat is called a “tractor tug”.
• It’s about manoeuvring, says Gadegaard. The other reason is that the boat drags less sea when backing up. This means that small boats have less risk of being exposed to stern waves.
  But it rarely happens that “Bruse” goes forward.
• If the weather is bad, we go forward, so we don’t get so much water over the stern, says the skipper.
• Gadegaard says that the boat is approved to go both ways. If you check the boat on marinetraffic.com, it looks like it is going forward when it is actually reversing.
• We have navigation lights that go both ways, and we can turn the satellite compass 180 degrees by pressing a button, says the skipper.

“Bruse” is owned by the company Buksér og Berging AS, which undertakes various maritime tasks along the entire coast:

From left: Captain Mads Gadegaard, sailor Kenneth Blindheimsvik and chief engineer Kjell Strømme make up the crew on “Bruse”. Photo: Private

Source: Derfor går «Bruse» bare bakover - smp.no
(Translated by Google translator)

Specification_Bruse.pdf