Posted on February 27, 2020
Complex technical requirements have delayed by some three years the completion of a new €98 million state-of-the-art oceanographic and fisheries research ship in Germany, reports Tom Todd.
The newbuild, a replacement for the nearly 30-year- old, 63m x 15m Walther Herwig III, was awarded to the Dutch shipyard group Damen in March 2017 and is being built to a design by Damen and Norway’s Skipsteknisk.
The original plan was to have the forward-looking newbuild completed in January this year by Damen’s Romanian subsidiary Galati. However Barbara Moitz, spokeswoman for owners the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) in Bonn told Maritime Journal the ship would not now go into service until 2023.
Galati was however making preparations for steel cutting, reportedly beginning in spring, and for the keel-laying of the future Walther Herwig IV, which Moitz said was due to take place this autumn.
Explaining the delay in starting construction, Moitz said that following the signing of the contract in 2017 “timing delays occurred in planning and in assembly procedures”. She told Maritime Journal these had been caused, among other things, by “the complexity of the technical demands being made on such a modern, ocean-going, multi-discipline fisheries research vessel”.
In further comments to this correspondent Moitz also confirmed reports that the expected cost of the new Walther Herwig would be €98 million. That is a big increase on the €85 million mentioned when the order was placed.
She also said the newbuild would be 90.28m loa and 18.4m wide. That is considerably larger than the 84.7m x 17.4m vessel mentioned in the 2017 tender invitation and it was not immediately known if the change in dimensions would affect propulsion. The original newbuild was listed with an eco-friendly diesel-electric propulsion system of total 4,800kW with SCR and particle filters. An unspecified 3,000kW engine, a bow jet and bow and stern thrusters were also listed.
Barbara Moitz stressed that the new ship, along with Germany’s two other fisheries research ships – the 28.8m Clupea and the 42.74m Solea – would be operated by the BLE and see regular service with the Thünen Institute.
The newbuild’s duties, as originally described, will cover fisheries resource monitoring, eco-system investigation, oceanographic and environmental survey, bottom habitat mapping and echo-sounder and meteorological survey.
Source: maritimejournal.com
