High-speed fleet claims attention

The issue of building a modern passenger fleet is especially acute for Russia as Crimea joined the Russian Federation and the country is focused on the development of domestic tourism. RF Ministry of Transport sees no possibility of creating the fleet without reducing production costs and developing viable financial structures, expects a lot from composite shipbuilding.

Viability is the first priority

There is a possibility to build high-speed passenger fleet in Russia, said Leonid Strugov, Director of the shipbuilding and marine equipment industry department at the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry, at the meeting of the Presidium of RF Government’s Marine Board.  “We are ready to build high-speed vessels at Russian shipyards including those of Crimea, the shipyard of Feodosia can be involved, in particular,” the official said. It should be noted that Kometa series  vessels were built in Feodosia in 1964-81.

Aleksei Rakhmanov, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, says the series should be sound to achieve a success. According to him, the production should be supported by subsidies, grants or something like that.

Meanwhile, Victor Olersky, Deputy Transport Minister of the Russian Federation, high-speed passenger ships built by Russian shipyards are too expensive. Victor Olersky said such vessels have commercial prospects only in the regions having no other alternatives (Siberia).

At the same time, it is necessary to work on the reduction of the product cost in other regions. Victor Olersky suggested building composite vessels as one of the measures aimed at cost reduction.

Besides, he says it is necessary to develop the system of operating lease with zero deposit via the state leasing company and to provide a compensative grant as a lumpsum covering of losses from high-speed ships operation.

Composite prospects

The projects for construction of composite high-speed ships are already available. Saint-Petersburg based Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard considers a possibility to build a Kometa type ship of composite materials. According to Georgy Antsev, Director General of OJSC Concern Morinformsystem-Agat, the use of composite materials is to reduce the cost of ships though the service life can be shorter than that of aluminum ships.

Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard is currently building a composite catamaran for 150 passengers. The project of the catamaran was designed by the Central Design Bureau Neptune. As compared with Meteor, the catamaran will feature improved nautical characteristics, ability to work at night and higher comfort for passengers in heavy sea. Three-layer composite material comprising carbon fabrics and foamed plastics will be used for the construction. Carbon fabrics will be supplied by Russian manufacturers while the resin is to be imported.

In early August 2014, Trade Minister Denis Manturov told RF President Vladimir Putin that the fleet of Meteor boats, high speed passenger boats being used in Russia today, is to be replaced with ships made entirely from composite materials. According to the Minister, there are around 300 Meteor boats in operation today. “New capacity already in operation includes a facility manufacturing motorboats at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St Petersburg”, Denis Manturov said. 

Russia has already had an experience in construction of composite vessels. They operate in Saint-Petersburg and in the Far East. They were built for APEC summit.

Moreover, a project for 9-seat river taxi is being developed today.

However, the idea of airfoil boats is a matter of argument among the experts as such boats are not secure in high sea.

Vitaly Chernov