Ferry Chronicle 2013
by Kalle Id
Welcome to the first issue of what (I hope) will be an annual look at the most interesting development of the international ferry industry from the past year. Overall, the year 2013 was something of a ”gap year” for the ferry scene. The last ships ordered during the previous economic upturn had been delivered and since then most major ferry operators – especially in northern Europe – have been biding their time with new developments, hoping that the Sulphur Oxide Emission Control Area (SECA) regulations coming into effect in 2015 in the Baltic Sea, North Sea and the coasts of the United States might still be repealed. Never the less, 2013 saw the delivery of several interesting newbuilt ferries as well as other notable developments, particularly in the field of preparing ferries existing ferry tonnage for the SECA regulations.
Notable Newbuildings
The common factor in major newbuilt ferries of the year was that they are not powered by diesel oil, as has been the tradition for the last half a century, but rather by liquidized natural gas (LNG), a technologically somewhat more demanding option. The advantage of LNG is its environmental friendliness: compared to the conventional diesel fuel, LNG produces 88% less nitrogen oxides, 15% less carbon dioxide and virtually eliminates sulfur oxides. Hence it is also an ideal future fuel source for the Emission Control Areas.
Viking Line’s VIKING GRACE sails through the icy Turku Archipelago in March 2013. Notice the LNG tanks on her aft decks. Photo copyright © 2013 Jukka Huotari.
The VIKING GRACE, delivered from STX Finland’s Turku yard to the Finnish ferry operator Viking Line for their Turku (Finland)-Mariehamn (Finland)-Stockholm (Sweden) route in January 2013, was the first major LNG powered ferry in the world. It was also the first newbuilt ship for the routes connecting Finland and Sweden in two decades. As such the ship attracted (deserved) media attention. The ship is equipped with dual fuel engines, capable of using both traditional diesel fuel or LNG. This feature proved highly useful during her first months of service, as suitable LNG fueling facilities for her were not yet built and during spring 2013 the ship was forced to operate mainly with traditional diesel fuel, before switching to full LNG.
The interior Oscar à la carte restaurant blends Scandinavian modernist design details into a more contemporary overall appearance in a manner typical of the VIKING GRACE. In terms of food, the restaurant is more upmarket from those of other Viking Line ferries. Photo copyright © 2013 Kalle Id.
In terms of interiors the VIKING GRACE marked other departures from tradition. Restaurant and entertainment concepts were rethought from previous ships. An even larger depature was seen in the interior design. Up until now Viking Line had usually entrusted the interior design of their ships to Robert Tillberg of Sweden. The design of the VIKING GRACE’s public spaces was given to the Finnish design firm dSign Vertti Kivi, who had no previous experience in designing ship interiors. The choice proved to be inspired, as dSign produced a stylish departure from the traditional ferry interiors that further contributed to the VIKING GRACE’s special status.
VIKING GRACE specifications
Tonnage 57 700 GT
Length 218,60 metres / 717 feet
Width 31,80 m / 102 ft
2 800 passengers
2 876 berths
530 lane metres of cars
1 275 lane metres of cargo
Fjord Line’s STAVANGERFJORD on a test sailing in June 2013. Unlike the VIKING GRACE, the STAVANGERFJORD is powered exclusively with LNG, and her LNG tanks are located below the car deck. Photo copyright © 2013 Espen Gees/Fjord Line.
The STAVANGERFJORD, delivered to the Norway-based Fjord Line in July 2013, differed majorly from the VIKING GRACE in being powered exclusively by LNG; there is no option of switching to traditional diesel fuel. The ship, built at the Fosen shipyard in Rissa, Norway, had a somewhat troubled conception. She was originally due to be delivered March 2012, but the Stocznia Gdansk shipyard, that had been subcontracted to build the hull of the STAVANGERFJORD and her upcoming sister BERGENSFJORD, experienced severe delays in the constructions process. The ships were originally planned to be built with traditional diesel power plants, with an option for conversion into LNG running at a later date. However, due to the delays in construction Fjord Line decided to replace the engines of the STAVANGERFJORD with LNG ones, resulting in additional delays.
The STAVANGERFJORD’s Grieg Gourmet -restaurant. Fjord Line hired Norway’s Falkum-Hansen Design to work on the interiors of their new ships. Photo copyright © 2013 Axel Soegaard/Fjord Line.
The STAVANGERFJORD was delivered in early July 2013 and placed on a new Bergen (Norway)-Stavanger (Norway)-Hirsthals (Denmark)-Langesund (Norway) route. Further problems followed however. Fjord Line’s plan had been to refuel the ship at Stavanger, where a suitable LNG terminal is located, but Norwegian local law demanded that LNG-powered ships could only be refueled when empty of passengers (the laws having been made for demands of small road ferries). This, combined with the short turn around times on new route, resulted in large-scale delays for the STAVANGERFJORD. Eventually Fjord Line solved the problem by sending the LNG fuel for the STAVANGERFJORD to Hirsthals on tanker trucks and refueling the ship there, while awaiting for a change in the Norwegian legislation, allowing refueling the ships in Norway.
The STAVANGERFJORD’s sister ship BERGENSFJORD will be delivered in early 2014.
STAVANGERFJORD specifications
Tonnage 31 678 GT
Length 170 m / 558 ft
Width 27,5 m / 89 ft
1 500 passengers (summer), 1 200 passengers (winter)
1 180 berths
600 cars
1 350 lane metres of cargo
The fastest ship in the world: the catamaran FRANCISCO owned by the Uruguay-based ferry operator Buquebus. Photo copyright © 2013 Robert Heazlewood/Incat.
Especially in northern Europe, the fast ferry is a dying breed. During the last decade, small but fast catamarans, monohulls and hydrofoils have gradually been replaced with somewhat slower but larger ships, offering more extensive facilities and striking a balance between speed and passenger comfort. But the fast ferry is not dead, as testified by the FRANCISCO that started service with Buquebus between Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay) in October 2013.
The spacious Business Class area on the FRANCISCO is given natural light by an overhead skylight. Photo copyright © 2013 Ivan Bach/Incat.
The FRANCISCO is a wave-piercing catamaran built by Incat in Tasmania, one of the leading builders of fast ferries in the world. Powered by gas turbines using – you guessed it – LNG fuel, the FRANCISCO’s recorded top speed is a whopping 58,1 knots, making her the fastest ship in the world according to her builders. The speed is combined with spacious interiors, including a 1 100 square metre (1 316 square yard) duty-free shop. The name FRANCISCO, meanwhile, honours Pope Francis, the first non-European Pope since the year 741. Originally the ship was to be named LOPEZ MENA, but this was quickly changed after Francis ascension to papacy.
FRANCISCO specifications
Tonnage 7 109 GT
Length 99 m / 325 ft
Width 26,94 m / 85 ft
1 000 passenger
150 cars
New lines and struggles
Aside from newbuildings, several other interesting company developments also took place during the year.
Stena Line’s Asian conquest begun in 2013 with the NEW BLUE OCEAN’s service from South Korea to Russia. Photo copyright © Stena Daea Line.
Stena Line, the Swedish ferry operator concentrating in northern Europe, and the World’s leargest ferry operator expanded their traffic area in March, when Stena Daea Line begun operations from Sokcho in South Korea to Zarubino and Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Stena Daea Line is a joint venture between Stena (90%) and South Korea’s Daea Group (10%). The sole ship of the new company is the Japanese-built NEW BLUE OCEAN (ex-SUPERFERRY 16, QUEEN QUINDAO).
Both the PRINCESS SEAWAYS (pictured) and her sister KING SEAWAYS suffered minor fires during 2013, as did not less than three other DFDS Seaways ships. Photo copyright © DFDS Seaways.
The Denmark-based DFDS Seaways, one of the largest ferry operators in the world, suffered a series of no less than five fires onboard their ships during 2013 – fortunately all of them minor. The VICTORIA SEAWAYS, sailing on the Kiel (Germany)-Klaipeda (Lithuania) route, suffered a fire in April. The PRINCESS SEAWAYS suffered an electrical fire when bound from Ijmuiden (Netherlands) to Newcastle (UK) in August. A container carrying fuel burnt on the freight ferry BRITANNIA SEAWAYS while she was sailing along the Norwegian coast from Harstad to Bergen in November. In December there were two more fires, first on the freight ferry CORONA SEAWAYS bound from Fredericia (Denmark) to Copenhagen (Denmark) and later on the KING SEAWAYS on the Newcastle-Ijmuiden line. None of the fires resulted in casualties.
The My Ferry Link ship BERLIOZ seen here in 2006 as the SEAFRANCE BERLIOZ. Photo AlfvanBeem/Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 license.
The year also saw the continued struggle of the Dover (UK)-Calais (France) ferry operator My Ferry Link, established on the ruins of the bankrupt SeaFrance in 2012. My Ferry Link’s ships, the RODIN, BERLIOZ and NORD PAS-DE-CALAIS, are owned by a subsidiary of Eurotunnel SA, the company that owns the Channel Tunnel. According to My Ferry Link’s (and Eurotunnel’s) competitors on the Dover-Calais line, P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways, due to the ownership of the My Ferry Link fleet, Eurotunnel now has a dominant market position in the Dover-Calais route. In June 2013 Britain’s Competition Commission ruled in favour of P&O and DFDS, demanding My Ferry Link to stop sailing on the Dover-Calais route six months. In December the Competition Appeal Tribunal retracted this decision and returned the case to the Competition Commission on ground of legal technicalities. My Ferry Link is allowed to continue sailing for the time being, but the legal struggle is far from over.
]Two of SNCM’s eight ferries, MÉDITERRANÉE (1989, ex-DANIELLE CASANOVA) and PASCAL PAOLI (2003), at the port of Bastia. The former is one of the ship slated for replacement by the terms of the new concession for France-Corsica ferry routes. Photo Louis Moutard-Martin/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
Also in France, SNCM and La Méridionale won the concession to operate the state-supported ferry routes from the French mainland to Corsica for a ten-year period from 2014 onwards. This victory was challenged by the other bidder Corsica Ferries, who claim the fact they were not allowed to bit for only some of the France-Corsica routes was against EU regulations and have taken the issue to court. The terms of the concession demand that no ship used on the routes is more than 25 years old, which means that SNCM must replace at least two of their ships; with this in mind SNCM unvailed plans in September for four new LNG-powered ships, to be delivered in 2016-2018.
SNCM’s partner on the France-Corsica lines are La Méridionale. Their flagship PIANA was completed in 2011 and is thus the newest ship on the routes. Photo copyright © La Méridionale.
During the autumn, however, the European Commission ruled that SNCM must pay back 440 million euros of illegal state aid recieved from the French state. As a result of this, SNCM’s largest owner Transdev (a joint venture between Caisse des Dépôts and the French transport giant Veolia) threathened to open bankruptcy proceedings on SNCM. In the end an agreement was reached where Transdev provide additional funds to SNCM so that the company can continue trading until January 2014, while some kind of a solution is hammered out for the company. This are further complicated by the trade unions representing SNCM crews, who were threathening to do indefinite strike on 1st January unless SNCM operations are “stabilized”.
Future developments/SECA Preparation
Ferry operators have assumed different strategies when it comes to the 2015 Sulphur oxide Emission Control Area regulations in northern Europe. Most companies have strongly opposed the new regulations, claiming that it will signal the end of ferry traffic and have lobbied (in vain) to have the regulations repealed. As seen above, Viking Line, Fjord Line and Buquebus have taken the lead in ordering new ships that fullfill the SECA regulations. During 2013, other ferry operators also awoke to the fact they must do something, if they wish to avoid the massive bill of using low-sulphur fuel in 2015.
DFDS Seaways’ roro freighter FICARIA SEAWAYS was equipped with sulphur scrubber technology in 2008 in order to bring exhausts down to the 2015 SECA regulations. The scrubber is housed in the aft section of the funnel. Photo copyright © DFDS Seaways.
Essentially, there are three alternatives for expensive low-sulphur fuel: LNG, the installation of exhaust scrubbers to (literally) wash the sulphur from the ship’s exhausts, or the usage of methanol as a fuel. (I know little to nothing of the last option, which had been outed by Stena Line as an alternative. As far as I know, they have released no details on the technology needed).
Color Line’s (somewhat dully named) SUPERSPEED 1 is one of the ships scheduled for scrubber installation in 2014. She is seen here at the Helsinki shipyard, after her aft superstructure was expanded. Photo copyright © 2011 Kalle Id.
Although many shipowners have criticized exhaust scrubbers as technology that is still in early stages of development and therefore unreliable, several companies have been testing the technology for years and several deals were signed during 2013 for wide-spread scrubber installation. DFDS Seaways, an operator of both passenger and freight ferries, had scrubbers installed on four of their roro freighters by the end of 2013, while eight more ships will receive scrubbers in 2014. Installing scrubbers on ten further ships is being studied. Four of Color Line’s six car-passenger ferries will also receive scrubbers in 2014. TT-Line’s car-passenger ferry ROBIN HOOD will also get scrubbers in 2014, with the rest of TT-Line six-strong fleet getting scrubbers is the ROBIN HOOD’s conversion is successful.
Ships that never were: A rendering of what the two LNG-powered ships Scandlines was planning to order from STX Finland would have looked like, had the order ever materialized. Photo copyright © STX Finland.
Three ferry operators are planning (LNG-powered) newbuildings in order to comply with the new regulations. The Germany-based Scandlines, operating on routes connecting Denmark to Sweden and Germany, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with STX Finland in July for the construction of two 1 300-passenger, 382-car ferries for the Gedser (Denmark)-Rostock (Germany) line. However, due to STX Finland’s economic difficulties the MoA was allowed to lapse in December and Scandlines are now negotiating with other shipyards. In North America, Canada’s BC Ferries are planning to order three 600-passenger LNG-powered ferries to replace the aged QUEEN OF BURNABY and QUEEN OF NANAIMO in the coastal trades iof British Columbia.
Brittany Ferries’ ARMORIQUE, seen here under construction in Helsinki, is one the ships slated for conversion into LNG power by her owners – should the European Union be willing to support the conversion effort. Photo copyright © 2008 Kalle Id.
Meanwhile, in December, the France-based Brittany Ferries, who operate from France to the UK and Ireland as well as UK to Spain, unveiled an ambitious plan to built a large LNG-powered car-passenger ferry and convert three of their existing ships to LNG power. However, this plan can come to fruitation only if the company gets monetary support from the European Union. LNG conversions are also being planned at Viking Line, who have been pleased with the VIKING GRACE’s performance. The company are studying the possibility of converting some of their existing diesel-powered ships tfor LNG running. In practice the prime candidate for conversion is the 2008-built Helsinki-Tallinn ferry VIKING XPRS; all other Viking Line ships are over 20 years old and such their conversion might not be economically viable.
A new ferry service will be initiated in 2014 between the USA and Canada using the NOVA STAR, originally the rejected English Channel ferry NORMAN LEADER. Photo copyright © 2013 Quest Navigation.
In non-SECA-related news, a new ferry operator is due to appear in North American waters in 2014, after Nova Star Cruises, a joint venture between Quest Navigation (US) and ST Maritime (Singapore), won the tender to operate a car/passenger ferry service from Yarmouth (Nova Scotia, Canada) to the United States for a seven-year period from 2014 onwards. Also participating in the tendering process were P&O Ferries (UK) and Balearia (Spain). Nova Star Cruises will begin service from Portland (Maine, US) to Yarmouth with the NOVA STAR, a ferry ordered by LD Lines for their services in the English Channel. LD Lines eventually declined to take delivery of the ship, as her deadweight capacity was smaller than specified. It remains to be seen how well the ship, planned for a short English Channel crossing, will work on the longer Portland-Yarmouth -line.
That was all for the first Ferry Chronicle. Please note that this was in no way a complete presentation of all developments in the international ferry industry during 2013, rather just a selection of most interesting case for MaritimeMatters’ readership.
Kalle Id is a freelance photojournalist and MaritimeMatters’ Helsinki correspondent. His first book on maritime history, Silja Line from De Samseglande to Tallink is due to be published in early 2014.