Foul Release Paint News

Shipowners, shipbuilders and representatives from the Green Award Foundation  attended the first in a series of planned ‘roadshows’ Subsea Industries has initiated to demonstrate the zero environmental impact and simplicity of cleaning hulls protected with its Ecospeed hard coating. Taking place last week in Maassluis, just outside Rotterdam, guests boarded Subsea Industries’ maintenance and dive support vessel to watch how vessels coated with Ecospeed can be cleaned effortlessly and legally in harbours…

MSC Cruises recently added a new state-of-the-art liner, the MSC Preziosa, helping the Italian company, truly a family business, attain the status of third largest cruise line in the world. MSC Preziosa is a Fantasia class cruise ship owned and operated by MSC Cruises. It entered service in March 2013 as an enhanced version of its sister ships, MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia, and is identical to MSC Divina, which was launched in 2012. Built at the STX shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, MSC Preziosa is the new flagship of MSC Cruises. The new ship gained immediate recognition famous courtesy of its christening by actress Sophia Loren, and was significant as it signified that MSC Cruises is now the third largest cruise line in the world.

Recently the underwater hull of m/v Sen. John J. Marchi, one of the ferries owned by Staten Island Ferries was coated with Ecospeed in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A. This is the second ferry owned by Staten Island Ferries that was given an Ecospeed treatment after m/v John Noblewas coated in Bridgeport, Connecticut last year. Ecospeed was also applied on one the company’s fuel barges in Staten Island, New York earlier this year and a third ferry is planned to be coated later this year. Under normal operation, ferries have to drydock once a year to comply with classification regulations. During the busy tourist season these ferries need to be sailing so the best time for drydocking is the off season when there are fewer passengers.

Hull fouling causes drag-related speed loss and increased fuel consumption when more power is delivered in order to maintain ship schedules. Hull fouling is also a topic of growing environmental concern and international regulation as it relates to green house gas emissions and the carriage of aquatic invasive species on fouled hulls. To combat these issues, shipping companies are relying on modern hull coating systems like foul-release paint to provide a ready solution. Foul-release and most other types of marine hull paint are expensive and shipping companies have had few easy choices for accurately measuring paint performance and cost effectiveness before making fleet purchasing decisions.

Over the last couple of months several owners of fixed route passenger vessels have chosen Ecospeed as the preferred coating to protect their vessel’s underwater hull for its entire sailing life. Among the vessels coated with Ecospeed are the largest Ro-Pax ferry in the world, a newbuild ferry in Croatia, and one of the vessels that provides ferry services across the Delaware Bay on the East Coast of the United States. These vessels will all benefit greatly from the fuel optimizing possibilities Ecospeed offers…