Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam re-delivers seven vessels to Hamburg Süd
In October 2012 Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam (DSR) won the contract for installing the first Becker Twisted Fin® on 7 container vessels of the fleet of Hamburg (Germany) based liner shipping company Hamburg Süd. To complete the project in time, the vessels were routed in such a way that they could each be dry-docked for a maximum of 6 days every consecutive week. All ships have now been re-delivered, the company reports.
The first vessel starting the cycle, MV SANTA CATHARINA, was expected the 30th of December 2012. However, this vessel was operationally delayed, which reduced the available time with three days. Due to an intense work preparation, with a good and smooth cooperation between the owners and makers, and an efficient method of fitting each prefabricated Becker Twisted Fin to its vessel, DSR managed to re-deliver each vessel just before the next vessel was ready for docking. The last vessel, the MV SANTA ROSA, was re-delivered in the last week of February.
The Becker Twisted Fin is developed in order to improve the performance of the vessel in combination with the propeller and the aft body of the vessel. After testing in the Hamburg Ship Model Basin HSVA it showed an improvement of reducing the fuel consumption for this type of vessels up close to 4%. With the Becker Twisted Fins installed, both Hamburg Süd and Damen Shiprepair contribute in a small, but significant way to environmental protection.
With this project DSR also contributed to the accreditation of the ISO 14001-2004. Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam is one of the 12 repair yards of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion in North West Europe, the latest members being ARNO Dunkerque (France), Shipdock Amsterdam and Shipdock Harlingen (NL). Some of the larger yards are Damen Shiprepair Götaverken (Sweden), Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen (NL) and Damen Shiprepair Brest (France). In Germany Damen Shiprepair & Conversion is represented by Zoepffel & Schneider GmbH.