Ro Ro Ship News

A U.S. Coast Guard boat crew rescued 12 people, Wednesday morning, after they were forced to abandon the Bonnie G vessel that was taking on water and ran aground just south of the airport in St. Thomas.All 12 people aboard the Bonnie G, a 195-foot Vanuatu-flagged “ro-ro” cargo vessel, are safe, and no injuries have been reported to the Coast Guard. Coast Guard watchstanders in Sector San Juan received VHF marine radio communication from the Bonnie G at 3:41 a.m., Wednesday, reporting…

Last month, a Hydrex diver team carried out an underwater stern tube seal repair on a ro-ro ship berthed in Algeciras, Spain.The ship was suffering from an oil leak, making an on-site repair necessary. Using a Hydrex flexible mobdock, the team was able to carry out the entire operation on-site and underwater, saving the owner an expensive and time-consuming trip to drydock.Once the operation was approved, all preparations were handled swiftly and the lightweight equipment was…

A merchant vessel was towed to safety after losing power in heavy seas off the coast of Somalia.On July 19, the EU's counter-piracy forces EU NAVFOR ATALANTA received a request for assistance from the Somali Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation after the Tanzania-registered merchant ship Anatolian suffered a complete propulsion and power plant failure, and was without food or fresh water. At the same time, ATALANTA assets were granted permission to enter Somali territorial waters.For about a week…

A French ro-ro ship will be the first commercial vessel to trial a novel wind-assisted propulsion system designed to curb emissions from shippingAirseas said it has installed its Seawing system on the vessel Ville de Bordeaux owned and operated by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs. The ship, which is chartered by Airbus to transport major aircraft components between France and the U.S., will deploy the 500-square meter Seawing on its monthly transatlantic journeys from January 2022, conducting…

The fifth in a series of 12 hybrid ro-ro ships for the Grimaldi Group has been christened in the port of Catania.Built by the Chinese Jinling shipyard in Nanjing, Eco Catania and its sister vessels already in service in the Mediterranean are part of the GG5G (Grimaldi Green 5th Generation) class, which rank among the largest and most eco-friendly ro-ro ships in the world.With a transport capacity of more than 500 trailers, these green giants are able to halve CO2 emissions compared to the previous generation of ro-ro ships operated by the Grimaldi Group…

Interferry CEO Mike Corrigan describes a distinctly upbeat period in the worldwide ferry community – and explains how the global trade association plans to take its support to far-reaching new levels.There are times when the phrase “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics” seems all too true, but here’s an honest number for you – ferries carry a global total of more than 2 billion passengers a year, which is almost on a par with airlines.Hard to believe? Not for those of us in the industry, but almost certainly for many citizens and politicians.

German shipbuilding company Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has handed over another Ro-Ro ship to SIEM Shipping.The Flensburg-based designer and manufacturer of ships for commercial and naval applications worldwide said in a press release that this is the sixth RoRo ship that FSG has delivered to SIEM and is identical in construction to the sister ship “ALF POLLK”.The “MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO” will be chartered out to Moby Lines Europe and deployed in the Mediterranean area on the routes to and from Sardinia and Sicily.Together with its sister ship “ALF POLLAK”, this will be amongst the newest and most modern RoRo ferries in the Mediterranean area…

Copenhagen-based DFDS named its newest -- and the Mediterranean's largest -- Ro-Ro ship in Turkey.The naming ceremony for 237-meter-long  roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) newbuilding, Ephesus Seaways, was held in Istanbul, Turkey. Ephesus Seaways vessel with a 6,700 linear-meter capacity has also been put into service.The ship will also be the largest vessel to serve DFDS customers on the routes between Turkey and the EU.Eva Lundstedt, who is the wife of Volvo’s CEO Martin Lundstedt, gave the ship her name and made a short speech about the importance of this ferry for people in the region and DFDS.It will be the largest freight ferry ever to service DFDS’ customers on routes between Turkey and the EU.

The Norwegian shipping company Color Line said that its newly purchased ro-ro ship M/S Color Carrier sailed for the first time from Hjortneskaia in Oslo to Kiel in Germany.Color Line can transport approx. 80,000 trailers annually on this stretch. This corresponds to a continuous string of trailers from Oslo to Tromsø in the far north of Norway."This initiative is an important contribution to strengthening the environmentally friendly sea route that represents a collective solution for the transport of goods," said CEO Trond Kleivdal. With the investment in Color Carrier, Color Line intensifies its focus on ro-ro transport as a new area…

French automaker Groupe Renault partners with NEOLINE, designer and operator of cargo sailing ships, to experience a new maritime transport solution and reduce the carbon footprint of the Group’s supply chain.Groupe Renault announced the signing of a 3-year partnership with Nantes start-up NEOLINE to develop a more sustainable maritime transport service powered by wind, and to contribute to the environmental management of its logistics chain while nearly 60% of the Group's parts and vehicles are transported by sea.Jean-Philippe Hermine, Vice President, Strategic Environmental Planning Groupe Renault, stated: “Groupe Renault’s objective is to reduce the environmental impact of each vehicle throughout its entire life cycle, from parts transportation up to delivery and end-of-life processing.

Underwater repair specialist Hydrex says when hull damage leads to the classification society to only allow temporary repair, there is a practical solution that allows ships to continue operations until a permanent repair can be scheduled. Recently called upon to inspect damage to the stern thruster area of a 195m ro-ro ship during a scheduled stop in Antwerp, the Hydrex investigation revealed a large crack in the welding seam on the edge between the hull plating and the thruster tunnel. To repair the vessel, Hydrex was able to fabricate a 600mm x 300mm doubler plate, on-site.

MV Celine, the world’s largest short sea Ro-Ro ship, will today be christened in a ceremony at Dublin Port with guest of honour, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, Godmother to the new ship, Geraldine O’Reilly, and the port’s chaplains. The formal ceremony is a long-held tradition intended to bring good fortune to the ship and involves breaking a champagne bottle against the hull as the ship is christened. To mark today’s occasion, new Irish music commissioned by Dublin Port and performed by John Sheahan of the Dubliners and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of the Frames will premiere at the ceremony, heralding the ship’s naming in front of invited guests representing her Luxembourg-based owner CLdN and the wider European shipping industry.

Ship owners weighing future marine fuel choices after the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 2020 0.5 percent sulphur cap should also consider oil company expectations that up to 30 percent of commercial shipping will gravitate back to high sulphur fuel oil by 2030, according to naval architecture and engineering consultancy Foreship. With just over 100 ships running on liquefied natural gas (LNG) today, the number in service is likely to remain below 500 by 2020. At the same time…

The Port of New Orleans welcomed the return of roll-on, roll-off service with the inaugural call of the Bahri Yanbu, a new state-of-the-art multipurpose vessel, in mid-August at the Nashville Avenue Terminal Complex operated by Ports America. “The return of roll-on/roll-off service to the Port of New Orleans – for the first time since 2005 – helps us meet the diverse needs of the marketplace and increases our global competitiveness,” said Brandy D. Christian, Port of New Orleans President and CEO.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Ports and Shipping has issued guidance on the implementation of the SOLAS VI Regulation 2 amendment that requires the verification of gross mass in packed containers (Container Weight Verification) with effect from 1 July 2016. In its Merchant Shipping Notice MSN 21/2016 dated 6 June 2016, the Ministry advises that the amendment places a requirement on the shipper of packed containers to verify and provide the container’s gross mass to the carrier and terminal representative prior to it being loaded onto a ship. The vessel operator and the terminal operator are required to use verified container weights in vessel stowage plans and are prohibited from loading a packed container aboard a vessel for export if the container does not have a verified container weight.

The MV North Star, a cargo ship that is owned by TOTE Maritime, spent more than half a day adrift Tuesday off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian Coast Guard reported late Tuesday that the cargo ship lost propulsion and was adrift near the coast of Haida Gwaii. Transport Canada says the MV North Star is once again en route to Tacoma, Washington. According to The Canadian Press, the Coast Guard ship should arrive about 4 a.m. local time Wednesday when the North Star will be about 20 nautical miles from shore. Tote Maritime Alaska is a division of Tote Maritime, the same parent company as owners of the El Faro ro-ro ship that sank at a cost of 33 crew members’ lives during Hurricane Joaquin off the Bahamas last month. It had also lost propulsive power before going down.

A further accommodation ship, Ocean Atlantic, is due at Lerwick on Monday 27 April 2015 and is on its way from Portland in Dorset. As with the other floating accommodation at the port, Petrofac will use it for workers constructing the Shetland Gas Plant project. Around 200 people will be accommodated onboard. The 140 metre long vessel, a former ro/ro ship, will berth at Victoria Pier in Lerwick until June and will be required to move off the berth on occasions to suit other vessel movements.

Mariners do best when they avoid the edges of the sea – the shoals, rocks, and other hard spots. Coming into contact with the edges of the sea at other than a slow walking speed can ruin an otherwise pleasant voyage. Unfortunately, though, vessels have been making hard contact with the edges since Noah’s Ark grounded on Mount Ararat, rendering the Ark unseaworthy. For a while, it was thought that the leadline would reduce groundings, but one can’t be swinging the leadline constantly. Lighthouses were another early means of identifying hard spots by means other than direct contact.

Two months after a Canadian shipowner applied Ecospeed for the first time to one of his ro/ro vessels, he decided to send a second ro/ro ship into drydock in Las Palmas to have the old paint system on the  underwater hull completely stripped off to bare steel to be replaced with Ecospeed. The Ecospeed system is designed to be applied in two homogeneous coats and the overcoating time is from three or four hours to weeks or months. It is designed to have a life expectancy of 25 years and is 100% non-toxic.

The Danish shipping company DFDS and Volkswerft Stralsund held a ceremony for newbuild no. 500: On the fitting-out quay at the shipyard the special-purpose Ro/Ro vessel was named Ark Germania by Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, German Federal Minister of Education and Research, in the presence of 150 invited guests. In the weeks following the naming ceremony Volkswerft will continue the work on the “Roll on - Roll off Cargo” special-purpose vessel. It is scheduled to be delivered to DFDS, one of the biggest shipping companies in Northern Europe, in the fourth quarter of 2013.

MHI Develops System to Enhance Damage Stability of Ships To Reduce Capsizing Risk: Response to Revised SOLAS Convention; First Order for Vessel with New System Placed by Nippon Shipping. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has developed a system to enhance the damage stability of ships, enabling reduction in capsizing risk, as well as a roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) ship* equipped with the new system. The company has already received an order for the newly equipped vessel from Nippon Shipping Co., Ltd., a group company of Nippon Express Co., Ltd.

High Transport Efficiency and Environmental Compatibility Recognized. TØNSBERG, the world's largest roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) ship*, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has been awarded the "Ship of the Year 2011" by the Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers (JASNAOE). Every year JASNAOE selects what it considers to be the most technologically, artistically and socially superior ships and marine structures built that year, and the TØNSBERG was chosen for its highly evaluated transport efficiency and environmental compatibility.

Australian shipbuilder Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd launch world’s first high speed passenger Ro-Ro ship powered by LNG (Liquified Natural Gas). The vessel will be the first installation of LNG powered dual fuel engines in an Incat high speed ferry, and the first high speed craft built under the HSC code to be powered by Gas Turbines using LNG as the primary fuel and marine distillate for standby and ancillary use. The new ship has been moored alongside the Incat shipyard wharf on Prince…