Sea Transport Solutions wins Tanzanian contract

Queensland based ship design and consulting company, Sea Transport Solutions (STS) will design a ?virtually uncapsizeable? vessel for Tanzanian Shipping company, Speke Shipping. The ro-ro passenger quadruple-screwed catamaran will carry 800 passengers and 400 tonnes of roro cargo from Mwanza to Bukoba on Lake Victoria.

The 61 metre long and 19 metre wide high tensile steel hull and aluminium superstructure will have a draught of 2 metres and able to stow 400 tonnes of cargo on deck. Power for the 20 knot catamaran will be provided by four Caterpillar diesel engines each with an output of 900 kW and driving two fixed pitch propellers. An interesting feature will be double grilled filters fitted to the engine air intakes to provide protection against the potentially disabling effects of the swarms of flies which inhabit Lake Victoria.

STS managing director Stuart Ballantyne said the vessel would provide a new level of efficiency and safety for travel on the lake where a disastrous capsize killing over 600 people occurred in 1996. He said many passenger vessels in developing nations, where crowd control was limited, were more at risk of capsizing during sudden squalls or when a large group of passengers moved to one side of the extended superstructure.

“We have advised many developing nations to use vessels that are designed so that the deck space runs out before the vessel runs out of stability,” Ballantyne said. “The reserve of stability in this catamaran is typically high of a catamaran hull and the superstructure is limited so that, even if every inch is packed with bodies, the vessel will not capsize.”

The newbuilding would be delivered in kit form and assembled by a yet-to-be appointed company in Mwanza. The vessel, which represented STS first contract in Africa, would be built to Lloyds Register?s ?special service craft rules?.