Naming cements Scandlines commitment
‘Berlin’: spearheading the challenge to fixed links
‘Berlin’, the first of two new 169m ferries for Scandlines, will be named March 9th in Stralsund, cementing the German-Danish operator’s commitment to traditional Baltic ferry services.
Tom Todd writes: Ferries in the area are likely to come into competition with the planned Fehmarn Belt fixed link due into operation in 2018.
The 24.8m Berlin, which draws 5.5m, was floated out at P+S Werften in Stralsund in December and will be ready for hand-over by the end of March. She will enter service between Rostock and Gedser ahead of sister ship Copenhagen, which will be named in May.
Scandlines said the names “underscore the growing importance of the Berlin-Copenhagen ferry axis for tourism and for economic co-operation between the two countries”. The company is investing €230 million on the ships and on expanded handling facilities in Rostock and Gedser.
The new ferries have wedge-shaped hulls and carry 1,500 passengers and 480 cars or 96 trucks on about 1,600 lane-metres. Each of the 20.5 knot ships has five MaK 9M32C main engines with Cat common rail capable of providing a combined 22,500kW and speeds of 20.5 knots.
In another Scandinavian shipbuilding exercise, P + S Werften, now grouping the former Volkswerft and Peene-Werft, will in June complete the first of five ice-breaking container and supply ships of three different types for Greenland. They are all being delivered to Royal Arctic Line (RAL) this year to supply settlements on the Greenland coast and research stations in Arctic and Antarctic waters. All will also carry medical facilities.
The first is a 113m long, 606TEU newbuild which is a modernised version of RAL’s Mary Arctica cargo type. She is 22.7m wide, draws 8.2m and boasts 255 reefer plugs, two cargo cranes and a 7,860kW main engine. RAL spokesman Jakob Strøm told The Motorship that two further ships – each 71m long and for 108TEU - were for completion August and October. They are 15.2m wide, draw 6m and have 80 reefer plugs, two cargo cranes and a 2,040kW main engine apiece.
The last two RAL ships, for delivery November and December Strøm said, are of a completely new type and are being built to serve unsecured small Greenland coastal settlements. Just 45m long and 12.8m wide, they carry 36 TEUs and have 26 reefer plugs and a cargo crane available. They are powered by a 1,040kW engine.
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