Feature 4 | RO-RO FERRY REPORT
Seatruck bucks trend unaccompanied Newbuilding programme gathers pace for freight-only Irish Sea operator.
to see an increase in unaccompanied shipments across the Irish Sea during 2009, as its latest new freight ferries enter service. The transport solution offered significant cost-savings over accompanied traffic, the shipowner said. Clipper Panorama, the second
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of Seatruck Ferries’ eight-strong newbuilding programme, entered service on the Irish Sea service linking Warrenpoint with Heysham on 25 January, aſter her delivery by Astilleros de Huelva, of Spain. Delivery was delayed, with Seatruck
Ferries managing director Alistair Eagles citing yard delays and an unavailability of main engines as critical factors. Te new freight ferry joined sistership
Clipper Point on the route, boosting capacity on this service to around 120,000 freight units annually. During 2008 Seatruck Ferries’ vessels carried nearly 90,000 units on this Irish Sea route. The third 22knot vessel in the
programme, Clipper Pace, entered service in March, also behind schedule, while the fourth, Clipper Pennant, due to enter service in May, now looks likely to be delivered “over the summer”, according to Mr Eagles. Both of these ships are for Seatruck Ferries’ Dublin-Liverpool route, with Clipper Penant due to replace the now operational Clipper Ranger. Mr Eagles said: “In the current
economic climate hauliers are looking for fresh opportunities to reduce door-to-door costs. By switching to unaccompanied shipments on a central corridor route, they can reduce their shipping costs and also achieve a significant reduction in road-miles.” Te new 120-unit ships are the only
purpose-built freight ferries for Irish Sea service to be introduced over the past 20 years. Teir service speed of 22knots cuts the crossing time from nine hours to seven hours.
60 The new freight ro-ro ferry Clipper Panorama. Mr Eagles added: “By the summer
of 2009 Seatruck’s Irish Sea capacity on the two routes will have risen to 240,000 freight units annually. We remain the only Irish Sea operator totally dedicated to freight movements and we believe there is plenty of scope to expand unaccompanied shipments. It makes good economic sense, especially in the current economic environment. Clipper Panorama replaced Moondance,
which was redeployed in early February to a new Seatruck Ferries service from Fredericia in Denmark to Moss in Norway. Seatruck also has four other ro-ro
ships on order with German shipbuilder Flensburger Schifau Gesellschaſt. Tese four-deck vessels have been designed in such a way that all decks will be connected by fixed ramps, with a single stern door, and the fourth deck providing the eye-catching design feature for a vessel of this size. Tey will therefore offer capacity for 151 (13.6m) trailers in a length of just
142m, with breadth given as 25m Teir design draught has been limited to 5.2m, in order to offer operational flexibility. Te new ships will also be fast for their size, with a service speed of 21knots. Mr Eagles said that recently completed tank tests had confirmed FSG’s hull line optimisation design, where “more cargo will be carried with a lower burden of fuel”. Tese ships are due delivery between
November 2011 and June 2012. Mr Eagles said: “We are still looking
at options when it comes to these ships, and whether they will come under our operation or be offered to the charter market, but it is clear that there is a shortage of ships in the market of this size. There have been plenty of bigger ro-ro ships built in recent years, but there have been very few in terms of what might be called ‘Handysize’ ro-ros. Most of the ships that offer around 2000 or 2500 lane metres of freight capacity were built in the late 1970s or early 1980s, so we see a good opportunity here.” NA
The Naval Architect April 2009
hile acknowledging tougher trading conditions, Seatruck Ferries has said that it expects
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