Wartsila powers yacht carrier

Wärtsilä has been awarded an order to supply the 19.7MW power plant for a yacht carrier contracted by the heavy transport specialist Dockwise Shipping BV, based in Breda in the Netherlands.

The yacht carrier has been ordered from Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China with delivery due in autumn 2006. Its dimensions are 205.34 m length overall, 32.2 m beam and an operational draught of 5.80 m. The cargoes of yachts will be loaded by floating them over the deck, which measures 165 m long by 31 m wide, while the vessel is ballasted down. To protect the yachts the cargo deck is equipped with high side walls.

This vessel is the first to be designed and built for carrying luxury yachts. Dockwise has built up the yacht transport business since 1987 and owns four converted semi-submersible vessels dedicated to this business. The new vessel will be employed in carrying yachts primarily across the North Atlantic with monthly sailings between Florida/Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The vessel will have a service speed of 18 knots which will reduce the current transatlantic transit time of 15 days to eight days.

The new yacht carrier will be equipped with a 19,680kW diesel-electric plant for propulsion, ancillary electrical power, and all shipboard electrical services. The plant will be powered by two Wärtsilä 12V38B main diesel generating sets, two Wärtsilä 6L20 auxiliary generating sets, and a 300kWe emergency/harbour generating set. The generating sets will supply twin Lips CS3500 pull thrusters for propulsion.

Manoeuvrability will be enhanced by a 1.64MW Lips CT225 transverse bow thruster. The two 5.1MW azimuthing pull thrusters will each be equipped with a 4.0m-diameter Lips skewed, pulling, controllable-pitch propeller and Sternguard MK2M shaft seals.

This is one of the first vessels to be equipped with Lips pull thrusters. The propeller is arranged ahead of the pod to achieve the best overall hydrodynamic efficiency and steering at high ship speeds.