MTU Propulsion for High-speed Ferry
Photo: MTU
Photo: MTU
Rolls-Royce said it will supply four 20-cylinder Series 8000 engines from MTU to Australian shipyard Incat Tasmania. The engines will be installed in the new high-speed RoPax ferry to be used by the Virtu Ferries company on the Malta-Sicily service that it operates daily throughout the year.
Set to be the largest high-speed catamaran operating in the Mediterranean, the vessel is 110 m in length and can accommodate 900 passengers plus crew and 167 vehicles on 490 truck lane meters.
MTU, part of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, has worked together in the past with ship owner/operator Virtu Ferries who has several catamarans in service on the Mediterranean and Adriatic.
“We already have three ferries with MTU propulsion,” said Francis Portelli, Managing Director at parent company Virtu Holdings Limited. “These engines are light in weight, and we’re very satisfied with them and especially with the after-sales support so MTU was naturally our choice for our new ferry.”
Knut Müller, head of marine and defense business at MTU, said, “We’re delighted that Virtu Ferries has again chosen MTU, particularly since this is the first time we’re supplying Incat with our biggest engine – the Series 8000. Our past cooperation on the delivery of Series 4000 units was very successful.”
More than 250 Series 8000 engines have been sold so far, and having clocked up over 1.4 million operating hours in total, have more than proven themselves in the propulsion of ferries, yachts and naval vessels.
Besides the four 9,100-kW engines, MTU will also deliver four 8V 2000 M51A gensets to Virtu Ferries. The new Virtu RoPax ferry will shuttle between Malta and mainland Europe throughout the year, and the crossing from Malta to Sicily will take just 90 minutes at a speed of 38 knots.
The keel-laying is planned for June 2017, while the engines are scheduled for delivery to Incat Tasmania in the second half of 2018.
