Scandlines develops the Balticmax

The idea of shipping passengers, trailers and containers together in one hull is, on the face of it, an attractive idea for ferry operators as they seek to expand the flexibility of their vessels and maximise revenue. However, in the light of a number of tragic ferry casualties over the past couple of decades, the dangers of mixing passengers with roro and lolo cargoes cannot be overstated. Any new design must meet the high levels of safety required under the Stockholm rules on stability for ropax ships operating in the EU.

As a key element of Scandlines new traffic concept, which is seen as a counter strategy to the building of bridges across the Baltic Sea, it has developed two innovative ferry types ? named Via Mare 5 000 and Via Mare 10 000. At 200m length and 36.4m beam, they are thought to represent the maximum size of vessel that can be employed on Baltic routes. These thoughts take into account the restricted sea room and infrastructure prevailing in certain Baltic areas and ports.

Both designs are based on the same main dimensions but, while the 5 000 type is a ropax version without load on/load off capabilities, the 10 000 design is a roro/lolo vessel with the capability of stowing containers on deck. The latter design also has a reduced passenger carrying capacity.

Heading for new shores

The German-Danish ferry operator has up to now concentrated its activities in the southern part of the Baltic between Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

The new plan, called ?Via Mare Balticum?, is to extend services to cover the whole Baltic Sea area including connections from Puttgarden in Germany to Gothenburg in Sweden and Oslo in Norway; from Rostock in Germany to Stockholm in Sweden and Helsinki in Finland; from Sassnitz on the German island of Rugen and Karlshamn in Sweden to Klaipeda in Lithuania and Liepaja in Latvia; and from Ust-Luga in Russia to Gdansk in Poland and Stockholm in Sweden.

To realise this objective will involve encroaching on services operated by a number of existing shipping companies, both local and from the Greek Attica Enterprises. Also, the incursion into the container market will mean competition with the traditional container feeder market which is very well established due to the remote location of the Baltic in relation to the main international box routes.

Radical departure for Scandlines

Different from the existing Scandlines fleet, which mainly comprises ferries able to transport passenger and cargo train wagons, the ?Via Mare? designs reflect a new transport philosophy for the company: Scandlines will seek to avoid transporting high volume/high weight vehicles such as road trailers, in order to maximise the cargo intake. This will enable the vessel?s loading capacity to be fully utilised for containerised cargo although this will require extra handling ashore to reload train wagons and trailers. The concept therefore needs standardised port facilities, including container handling equipment. Scandlines estimates that the turnaround time in port for the 5000 type is 1.5 hours while the 10 000 type could take up to a maximum of six hours although a revolutionary container handling system is under consideration for installation onboard aimed at reducing this to about two hours.

Via Mare 5 000 ropax type

The Via Mare 5 000 type is a ropax ferry designed with four cargo decks of a total length of 2,150 lane meters. Scandlines has calculated that this design will be able to transport in theory the equivalent cargo of 420 trailers which would equate to 5,000 lane metres. Access to the decks is possible on two levels via the stern with the lower hold and the weather deck being accessed via inner ramps. There is a large, five decks high superstructure block in the forward part of the vessel capable of accommodating between 600 to 700 passengers and crew. In the inner part of the superstructure, an extended area of the two lowest accommodation decks will be used for the transport of cargo.

Via Mare 10 000 roro/lolo type

On the Via Mare 10 000 design, the calculated theoretical lane length amounts to 10,000m although the actual lane length is 4,300m, which is twice as much as on the railway ferry Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, currently Scandlines largest vessel. An additional 400 TEUs can be stowed on deck. These will have to be handled by shore-based gantry cranes. The total calculated cargo capacity of a possible mix of 400 TEU boxes and 500 trailers would be the equivalent to 700 trailers.

Compared to the smaller design, the 10 000 type offers fewer passenger facilities with 150 cabins for only 300 berths located in the forward part of the vessel, mainly to accommodate lorry drivers. This leaves more space for container loading on the weather deck where the boxes will be stowed in an eight 40 foot bay cell guide configuration, each five rows deep and five high and positioned along the centreline of the vessel. The lower two levels are below the weather deck area which creates an open hatch arrangement and will need drainage and other structural measures to maintain the vessel?s sea keeping integrity.

Practical difficulties are envisaged when both trailers and boxes are stowed on the weather deck since the lifting of containers over the trailers could pose safety problems.

Commercial

challenges

The main design challenge of the Via Mare Balticum ferries centres around the fact that they represent the first attempt to combine trailers and containerised cargoes with the transportation of passengers. This kind of mixed transport raises a series of basic questions, especially commercial justification and the increasingly important safety and security aspects. By combining three different transport modes, Scandlines is pushing back the boundaries of the conventional ropax ferry and, in its drive to optimise the Baltic ferry concept, has made the economic viability of its design problematic.

Scandlines managing director, Ole Rendbaek, concedes that the high carrying capacity of the new designs will require large traffic volumes to derive the maximum benefit from the economies of scale offered by the ferries. Before placing any orders, therefore, his company needs to be confident of its ability to fill the ships.

He says that the vessels will be powered by conventional propulsion in the shape of a two-stroke MAN B&W diesel mechanical power plant driving a single Kappel propeller for maximum economy and greatest reliability. Also, port operators will need to invest heavily in upgrading their cargo handling facilities in order to cater for passengers, roro and lolo cargoes on the one berth.

Safe hull

Safety issues centre around the stowage of containers in the light of a number of incidences suffered on box ships where containers have shifted during rough sea passages or caught fire by self-ignition. Of particular interest in this respect is the hull shape of both designs since the high freeboard and shelter-deck cargo decks could create potentially high acceleration forces causing damage to cargoes and even loss of boxes overboard.

To counter this, the hull is exceptionally beamy at 36.4m for the 200m length giving a low meta-centre, while a novel system of water-tight subdivisions will enhance the vessel?s survivability in the event of flooding damage. This patented design feature meets the requirements for ferry safety under the Stockholm convention and has enabled the designer to utilise the upper decks for the stowage of cargoes.