ANOTHER SELF-UNLOADER FOR ALGOMA

The newbuild will be the latest iteration of the Equinox design, featuring a raft of improvements over preceding vessels to yield gains in both cargo volume and operating efficiency.

The contractual award to Yangzijiang Shipyard in Taicang City, Jiangsu province, closely follows the delivery to Algoma of a gearless Equinox-type bulker from another Chinese yard, Jiangsu Yangzi-Mitsui Shipbuilding. The St Catherines, Ontario-based company has received a series of both gearless and self-discharging vessels of the Equinox family from Croatian and Chinese builders since 2013-2014.

The new commitment at Yangzijiang represents the exercising of an option, and heralds the Equinox 2.0 class development, offering an incremental gain in fuel efficiency in conjunction with enhanced deadweight capacity and improved speed at lower engine power.

Design changes relative to preceding vessels include various weight-saving measures and a reconfigured stern form that incorporates a dual-rudder arrangement to increase cargo hold size, resulting in a gain in carrying capacity of approximately 1,440t. Other enhancements feature an efficiency upgrade to the propeller and revisions in the shape of the cargo holds so as to facilitate the handling of certain “sticky” cargoes.

Construction is scheduled to begin towards the end of next year, with a view to entry into the Canadian fleet at the start of the 2024 Lakes navigation season. The new vessel is intended as the replacement for the 32,700dwt Algoma Transport, a self-unloader completed in 1979 by Port Weller Dry Docks of Ontario.

Self-discharge in the Equinox bulkers is achieved using gravity-fed conveyors incorporating feeder gates running the length of the cargo section in tunnels under the four holds. Cargo is lifted using a C-Loop conveyor and transferred to a luffing and slewing unloading boom, affording flexibility and precision in placing cargo ashore.

Algoma’s Equinox self-unloaders have strengthened the company’s competitiveness in the transportation of aggregates, salt and a range of other bulk commodities.

In the continuing roll-out of the Equinox programme, the Laker fleet is set to be augmented by the 34,860dwt Captain Henry Jackman, which is expected to arrive in Montreal on 19 June at the end of the delivery voyage from China. The vessel is the 10^th Equinox-class bulker to enter service with Algoma, and the fifth of gearless type. The new version embodied by Captain Henry Jackman is designated the Equinox 3.0 variant, and is described as the most efficient unit in the company’s domestic fleet.

Measures implemented in the latest addition include lighter aluminium hatch covers and an improved twin rudder design that significantly increases vessel displacement, enabling an increased cargo intake without necessitating extra power and incurring higher fuel consumption. The advance in deadweight relative to preceding, gearless Equinox carriers is some 1,200t.

Compatriot firm Thordon supplied its COMPAC water-lubricated stern tube bearing and SXL rudder bearings, plus tailshaft coating, water quality package and bearing condition monitoring system to the new Equinox.

Closed-loop exhaust gas scrubbers have been specified for all Equinox-class ships.

Algoma had placed its original Equinox orders in 2010 with Nantong Minde of China, using the innovative design platform for both gearless and self-unloading bulkers that had been developed over a two-year period by the Canadian operator’s project team in conjunction with Finnish technical consultancy Deltamarin.

The company controls the largest Canadian-flag fleet deployed on the Great Lakes/St Lawrence Seaway network, comprising product tankers as well as bulkers, and also owns ocean-going bulk carriers.