Blohm + Voss bags ferry conversions

Scandlines spokeswoman Anette Ustrup Svendsen told

The Motorship

on Friday 2 May that the two ships were expected to leave Volkswerft in Stralsund, where they are parked, next week for the Hamburg yard.

She said: “We expect to invest well over €100 million in the conversion and completion of both ships” and added, “that will probably make the overall costs as high as the originally agreed price in 2012”.

She said Scandlines and Blohm + Voss would spend “one to two months” sorting out final contract details and also the new technical specifications of the ships. Scandlines has given no details of those as yet but has said the ships will boast “innovative and award-winning hybrid propulsion systems” and scrubbers. It has also said the ships will carry 1,300 passengers – 200 fewer than originally stipulated – but the original 480 cars and 96 trucks.

This lends credence to earlier reports that in order to reduce weight and draught, two upper decks will be replaced and replaced with one deck, bridge and crew quarters in aluminium. The reports said this would save 780 tons and reduce passenger totals but mean that planned high cargo capacity on 1,600 lane-metres can be retained.

The 169.5m long and 24.8m wide largely completed ships have been at Volkswerft since they were originally ordered in 2012 for a reported €184 million. They were cancelled because of being overweight when the P+S Werften group went bankrupt, and then re-purchased earlier this year, reportedly for €31.6 million.

The ships’ originally stipulated propulsion comprised five MaK 9 M32 C main engines with Cat Common Rail capable of providing a combined 22,500kW and speeds of 20.5 knots.