Measuring success


STX Europe and MARIN - A cooperation spanning nearly three decades


Raimo Hamalainen


MARIN always places a great deal of importance on developing long-term


relationships with its clients. STX Europe, comprising 15 shipyards and based in Oslo, has been a customer of MARIN for


more than 30 years. In this issue of Report Raimo Hamalainen, Head of Hydro- dynamics in Turku, STX Finland Oy, STX Europe, talks about the many pioneering developments the organisations have


worked on together and about the impor- tance of precision measurement tech- niques. He also outlines the challenges presented by the development of Royal


Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise liner, the largest cruise ship in the world.


6 report R


aimo personally, has been involved in hydrodynamic design from the early 1980s, working on more than


50 prototype newbuildings and more than 1,500 projects. MARIN and Raimo have worked together on projects for some 27 years, so the cooperation has seen many important developments, with some pio- neering work now becoming routine. Commenting on one such development, Raimo says that a-symmetric rudders and twisted rudders are now typical in many of today’s cruise liners, ferries and ropax ves- sels. “These rudders have better cavitation, erosion rates, fuel economy, manoeuvring ability and even better comfort levels.”


Research & Development and an increasing level of knowledge about podded propul- sion has improved the hydrodynamic design in the aftbody a lot, he says. “As vessels have become bigger and bigger, using three or four pods has allowed them to become more reliable.” Pods in the forebody are also helping to control the forebody in a similar way to the aftbody. “Podded propulsion has a lot of benefits compared to conventional propulsion and it makes a hydrodynamics specialist’s life much easier when considering appendage design, the optimum propeller location,


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