T
he 218-metre long cruise ferry, ordered by Viking Line, is scheduled for
delivery at the beginning of 2013. Viking
Grace will serve the Turku – Åland Islands
(Finland) – Stockholm (Sweden) route.
The keel-laying of the ship took place
in March 2012 and at the end of June, the
Project Manager Vesa Airaksinen confirms
the project is proceeding according to the
plans at the shipyard.
“We are putting the final blocks together at the end of June and will float
out the vessel in early August,” Airaksinen provides an update.
He acknowledges that the project is
an unusual one because of LNG fuel, but
the actual routines of ship-building remain
quite unchanged:
“We are doing some new things with
this vessel for the first time, but for the
most part, it’s business as usual.” For the
Turku shipyard, the project brings approximately 2 600 man-years of labour in total.
CENTRE OF ATTENTION
Airaksinen is aware of the waves the newbuild is already causing around the industry: the ship has attracted a lot of interest
both nationally and internationally due to
its environmental innovations. The buzz is
assessed to be a positive thing for STX Finland and also the Finnish shipbuilding industry as a whole – it shows the world that
the cruise business can, indeed, go green.
In February it was announced that
AGA Gas AB will supply the liquefied natural gas for Viking Grace. At the time, Mikael Backman, President and CEO of Viking Line, remarked that Viking Line’s and
AGA’s investment in LNG represents “major environmental advantages” compared
to traditional maritime fuel. Viking Grace
will also be Viking Line’s largest passenger ferry to date.
But how does LNG work in practice?
– The liquefied gas will be stored in specially built tanks at the rear of the vessel
and will have a temperature of about –
160 degrees Celsius when it is bunkered
and stored on board.
It is noteworthy that LNG contains
neither sulphur nor heavy metals. By using
seatec 2/2012
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