DESCRIZIONE
A tugboat for assisting a marine vessel to maneuver. The tugboat boat comprises an engine driving one or more propulsors with a controllable direction of thrust, a towing line for establishing a pulling connection between an assisted vessel and the tugboat, a first sensor arrangement configured for sensing the size and direction of the pulling force that the towing line exerts on the tugboat, a second sensor arrangement configured for sensing the orientation of the tugboat, a controller in receipt of a signal from the first sensor arrangement and in receipt of a signal from the second sensor arrangement. The controller is informed of the size and direction of thrust generated by the one or more propulsors, and the controller is configured to determine if a safety threshold is exceeded on the basis of: sensed size and direction of thrust, sensed size and direction of the pulling force, and sensed orientation of the tugboat.