{"id":3092,"date":"2010-03-19T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mercator.nfdtesting.uk\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/2010\/03\/19\/special-ships-keep-german-yards-busy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T22:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:24:16","slug":"special-ships-keep-german-yards-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/news\/repair-conversion\/special-ships-keep-german-yards-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Special ships keep German yards busy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Kiel, IFM-GEOMAR, the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, was extensively overhauling and modernising two research ships thanks to a government grant of \u20ac6 million. The 60.8m, 34 year-old Poseidon<\/em> and the nearly 20-year-old, 55.2m Alkor<\/em> were being extensively refurbished and much of their scientific equipment modernised.<\/p>\n

The list of jobs was long, the Institute said, and ranged from main engine work to the installation of communications equipment. Spokesman Andreas Villwock told The Motorship<\/em> that Poseidon<\/em> was being drydocked in May for second stage overhaul, which included outer hull work, work below the waterline and the renewal of the deep-sea sounder.<\/p>\n

First phase work on Poseidon<\/em> was carried out by Schiffsdieseltechnik (SDT) in Rendsburg. Villwock said the biggest job was the refurbishment of the ship\u2019s three MWM (Motoren Werke Mannheim AG) TD 602 V 16 main engines and AEG generators along with electronic systems. Other work included installation of a new gyro-compass and extensive overhaul of washroom, laboratory and galley facilities and winches and lifting gear.<\/p>\n

Willwock said it was not known where the second phase of Poseidon<\/em> work would be carried out, or who would carry out similar work on Alkor,<\/em> which he told The Motorship<\/em> had \u201cregrettably\u201d been postponed until the last quarter of the year. No reason for the delay was given.<\/p>\n

East in Stralsund, a bigger research ship, the 73m, 3,500 dwt military research SWATH Planet<\/em> was lifted onto dry land at Volkswerft for four days of repairs after rope caught in a propeller screw shaft and damaged sealing. Built at Nordseewerke in 2005, Planet<\/em> is still Germany\u2019s biggest SWATH. She was last at Volkswerft in 2008 for class renewal.<\/p>\n

Yet another research ship, the GKSS Research Centre\u2019s 31m shallow water vessel Ludwig Prandtl, was<\/em> being converted at the SSB Oortkaten Shipyard near Hamburg as The Motorship<\/em> went to press. GKSS spokesman Volker Dzaak said the work was for completion about mid February. The work included modifications to her ballast and fuel tanks and getting a stern A-frame for the launch of submersibles. The contract was worth \u20ac100,000.<\/p>\n

SSB Oortkaten is also busy until April with the conversion of the 27.2m long and 6.5m wide harbour passenger ferry Falkenstein<\/em> for Hamburg ferry and tourist concern Hadag. The vessel is being widened by 1.3m, which is what also happened to sister Wolfgang Borchert<\/em> at SSB in 2007. That ship was cut twice lengthways, on either side of the engine block. A new bow had to be built, which also lengthened the ship by 0.7m. Stern passenger accommodation was also renovated and enlarged.<\/p>\n

The ferry is also getting a new engine and side entry points in work costing a reported \u20ac700,000 \u2013 \u20ac 800,000.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research vessels feature strongly in the current workloads of several German yards busy with small ship repair, refurbishment or conversion, writes Tom Todd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-3092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-repair-conversion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3094,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions\/3094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}