The Motor Ship Propulsion Conference 2006 26th ? 27th April, Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel, Copenhagen

The Motor Ship?s 28th annual event is a huge success

The Motor Ship?s 28th annual conference held on 26th and 27th April at Radisson SAS Scandinavia in Copenhagen was a huge success with over one hundred attendees taking part in the two days.

Carsten Melchiors, Secretary General of BIMCO ? the world?s largest organisation for shipowners, managers and operators, chaired the two day event and said:

“The technology content was really high. This surely is a conference where a lot of the usual company self congratulation is missed and the focus is on communicating real information and knowledge about news and trends in propulsion technology.

At the same time the audience was knowledgeable and used all time possible to debate the issues. At BIMCO we find it well worth our while to be associated with this event”.

Peter Tang-Jensen from Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark presented the keynote address under the session headline ?Powering Giant Container Ships? and stressed that as builders of ?giant? container ships, both they and their customers have to focus on three main areas when choosing components for a new building: safe and uninterrupted service, fuel consumption and environmental issues.

Delegates found it extremely interesting to listen to MAN B&W who were open about the difficulties they have faced in connection with the introduction of their ME engines. Some said it was refreshing to hear an engine builder admit that, as with other new technological products, there have been some minor problems, most of which were solved swiftly.

On the evening of the first day, delegates were treated to a drinks reception at MAN B&W?s test centre. Marianne Rasmussen-Coulling, Business Manager of the Marine Division at Nexus Media Communications, presented MAN B&W with the original painting of 1920 motor ship Afrika which was commissioned to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the The Motor Ship magazine.

The following day, Arne Kristiansen, Chairman of Tyvik AS gave an interesting presentation on his hydrodynamic propulsion concept which he says is a new and radical way of solving an old propulsion problem. In his presentation he included video footage of students performing a scale model test. Kristiansen completed his presentation by admitting that the concept is likely to have the biggest potential for ships operating in restricted waterways such as rivers and that they have found the method so promising as to be worth further development and investment.

The conference was closed by a new concept introduced this year, the ?Owners ? Suppliers debate?. Moderated by Michael Grey, MBE, marine journalist, the debate was intense and touched on a number of areas where vendors had an apparent interest in taking over more and more of the work that has traditionally been carried out by the owners and/or their crew. Grey definitely had his work cut out for him!

Delegate feedback at the end of the conference proved that The Motor Ship Propulsion Conference 2006 was definitely a success with information being requested for the 2007 event to be held in Hamburg next April.

If you would like to register your interest for The Motor Ship Propulsion Conference 2007 to be held in Hamburg or would like more information about sponsorship and promotional opportunities at the event, please contact:

Sue Colyer, Delegate Co-ordinator +44 (0)1322 611421 or email: sue.colyer@nexusmedia.com

If you were unable to attend this year?s conference but would like to purchase a copy of the conference proceedings, please visit http://www.motorship.com/conference/ordercd.asp where you can order a copy for yourself.

– ENDS –

NOTE TO EDITORS ? For more information on this press release please contact:

Emma Nichols, Marketing Executive, Nexus Media Communications +44 (0) 1322 611334 or email emma.nichols@nexusmedia.com