Thais after Vanessa

In a couple of months, chemical tanker operator Fouquet-Sacop takes delivery of the second of two 15,500 dwt ships from Portuguese shipbuilder Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo (Vianayard). The vessel, called FS Thais, will like its sistership FS Vanessa, delivered earlier this year, transport petroleum-based products (such as crude, fuel, gasoline, naphtha, etc) and chemical products (such as benzene, methylic alcohol, ether, vegetable oil, animal oil, etc.).

The IMO type II tankers each have five pairs of steel cargo tanks, divided by corrugated bulkheads. These are protected by a double bottom with a minimum height of 1.55m. On deck the ships each have two cylindrical slop tanks constructed from mild steel.

The cargo and slop tanks are lined with three coats of phenolic epoxy. Each tank is equipped with a hydraulic centifugal cargo pump, of FRAMO make, and a cargo heater on deck. The deep well pumps in the cargo tanks each have a pumping rate of 300m3/h and the slop tanks each have a deep well pump with a pumping rate of 100m3/h.

Each cargo pump circulates a tank?s contents through the heater during transit, thus eliminating the need for heating coils within the tanks. There are stainless steel coils in the slop tanks. Two 3,500kW oil-fired boilers generate steam for cargo heating.

An oil fired inert gas system with a capacity of 3,000m3/h is installed. All tanks have fixed tank washing machines. A crane at the manifold, with a 5t SWL at 16.5m, assists the handling of cargo hoses. Ballast tanks are epoxy coated.

Aft of the cargo and slop tanks is the engine room and superstructure. The main engine is a four-stroke MaK 7M43 rated at 6,300kW at 500 rev/min. This drives a four-bladed cp propeller of 5.1m diameter through a reduction gearbox. Propeller speed is about 150 rev/min with the engine turning at its rated output. The ships have a laden service speed of 14 knots and a range of 10,000nm (or 30 days). In ballast service speed is 14.5 knots.

Auxiliary power ? needed for a 900kW electric variable pitch bow thruster, cargo handling and hotel load etc. ? is supplied by three Yanmar diesel engines delivering 750kW at 1,500 rev/min and by a single shaft generator, delivering 1,500kW.

The superstructure contains 19 single-occupancy cabins. It also houses an officers mess and a crews mess, galley, hospital, contaminated clothes room, engine control room, cargo control room, emergency generator room, CO2 room, N2 room, incinerator room, inert gas room, food locker and various stores.