Rederij Doeksen has inked a US$50 million contract to build two 70m pure LNG-powered catamarans.
Both vessels will be built by Triyard Holdings subsidiary, Strategic Marine in Vung Tau, Vietnam, and naval architect BMT Nigel Gee will be responsible for concept through to production design. The catamarans will serve the Friesland Islands connecting Harlingen, Terschelling and Vlieland in the Netherlands and enter service in April 2018. The ropax ferries will be single fuel LNG, with both main engines and generators running off the LNG supply.
The eco-friendly ferries are designed to carry up to 600 passengers and 64 cars. Construction is set to begin this summer with delivery scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.
Strategic Marine’s chief executive officer Mark Schiller stated “We foresee an increased focus in the environmental aspects of marine transportation and LNG emerging as the fuel of choice for vessels and ferries. Our focus on the large ferry market is beginning to reap the desired results with this recent win, as we continue to focus on the vertical chain for aluminum vessels.”
Technical director of BMT Nigel Gee, Ed Dudson comments: “Winning this project with Strategic Marine from an international tender process is excellent. This is an incredibly exciting project for us to be working on ‒ to develop these vessels with such low emissions to operate in the Wadensee is a fantastic opportunity. The vessels will be built in aluminium to minimise weight, thereby further reducing emissions. They will be the first passenger vessels to have the new MTU 4000 series gas engine installed. Bow thrusters will be run from stored power, recharged from shore power. At 70m long with a 17m beam, the vessels will also have a very low operating draft of 2.5m to facilitate operating in the Wadensee, an area of particularly shallow water. Manoeuvrability will be excellent with the use of azimuthing thrusters.”
With the capacity to accommodate over 60 cars and 600 passengers, the vessels will be designed to interface with existing port facilities, and boast wind generators and solar panels to reinforce their environmentally friendly credentials.
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