Ship design for environmentally friendly ferry
Rendering of the new ferry design
The scope of the work will be both initial and basic design. The ferry will be deployed between Vaasa in Finland and Umeå in Sweden across the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea.
The new vessel is required to be innovative, efficient and environmentally sound, Wärtsilä said on the occasion of the contract signing. Its design will have to take the need for operational flexibility into account since the transport demands on this route vary from season to season. The need for cargo transports is quite stable in the course of the year while passenger traffic peaks during the summer. During peak periods the ferry will thus run on a tighter schedule than required at other times when the speed can be reduced in order to save fuel. Operation during harsh winter months also need to be considered.
The ship design phase is scheduled to be finalised by the end of the second quarter in 2015.
