Ship design interests merged into one

Wärtsilä announced at NorShipping that it has merged all of its ship design units into a single entity called Wärtsilä Ship Design. The units include the recently acquired naval architecture companies Vik-Sandvik of Norway, Conan Wu & Associates (CWA) of Singapore and Schiffko of Germany as well as the conceptual ship design unit in Finland.

The new set up will generate a variety of new designs, from simple, low-cost, standard vessels to more high-end, ground-breaking tonnage. Wärtsilä now claims a broad and high quality offering of ship design services, expecting to increase its share in the ship design market with the main focus on a full design scope approach.

“There will be a close collaboration between our Ship Design unit, other parts of the Ship Power organisation and other Wärtsilä divisions. Our long term ambition is to create standard proven designs with predefined solutions and operational services with performance guarantees and fixed prices. It may also include extended services like yard selection and supervision support in the construction phase,” says Arne Birkeland, Vice President, Ship Design, Wärtsilä Ship Power.

“We will gradually launch a series of designs developed as a result of the knowledge sharing between the different units, and these will be branded as Wärtsilä Ship Designs,” said Birkeland. “It is our goal to establish Wärtsilä as an independent ship design brand, which will be the customer?s first choice”.

The move into ship design is in line in Wärtsilä?s strategy to strengthen its position as a total solutions provider. Through ship design Wärtsilä can offer competitive solutions that will lead to better total efficiency, improved environmental performance, and reduced life cycle costs for its customers.

One of the first designs to be fully accredited as a Wärtsilä Ship Design is the W Tug 80. This is a compact, high performance escort tug of 35m, capable of carrying out ship assist duties at offshore terminals, as well as high-speed escorting, push-pull operations, and coastal towing.

The W Tug 80, designed for 80 ton bollard pull, can attain a speed of 14.5 knots. Due to its compact size and two Wärtsilä steerable thrusters, the tug is very manoeuvrable. The rounded bow profile with moderate flare is optimised for pushing and reduces the risk of slamming.

A large skeg combined with the forward hull shape results in a steering force of 250 ton during escorting.

It is powered by two 8-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 26 engines, each rated at 2600kW at 1000rpm. A modular propulsion concept with various engine arrangements can be configured within the same basic design.

The towage and escorting duties are served with a forward 112t towing/anchor winch. A 91t towing winch is sited aft of the superstructure. The tug can be equipped for fire-fighting duties and can operate 200 nautical miles from the coastline.

It is planned to offer alternative dual fuel (for LNG terminal use) and hybrid electric versions of the design.