Stena conversions underway

Germany's Lloyd Werft (Bremerhaven) has given more details regarding the contract to convert two ro/ro ferries for Sweden's Stena RoRo AB – the 26,663 grt Stena Trader and her sistership Stena Traveler, which are to be shortened by 12 m - for service in Canada, with work started during early October.

During more than twenty years, ship extensions have become virtually routine projects for Lloyd Werft. The Bremerhaven shipyard has lengthened 21 cruise liners and freighters, adopting dramatically innovative techniques in some cases, and earning an outstanding reputation for doing so throughout the world-wide shipbuilding market. But work to be undertaken in the forth quarter of this year will be the first project to shorten the hulls of two large Stena ro/ro ferries. The Stena Trader and the Stena Traveler - both build during 2006/2008. The hulls must be shortened so that both ships can serve the narrow island ports in Nova Scotia ans Newfoundland starting in 2011. Lloyd Werft will be allowed 55 days to complete the conversion of each ship. The Stena trader is the first ship to arrive in Bremerhaven. “We won these orders against strong national and international competitors,” said Rüdiger Pallentin, Managing Director of Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH, adding that the successful and long-standing cooperation with Stena Line ans Stena RoRo AB, for which the shipyard had previously lengthened a number of large ro/ro ferries, was surely one of the reasons for awarding the contact. Mr Pallentin also pointed out, in particular, that shortening the hulls ohttp://www.lloydwerft.com/typolight/main.php?do=news&mode=2&pid=3&table=tl_news&act=edit&id=291f the Stena Trader and the Stena Traveler would be “technically very challenging and complex.” The project to shorten the two sisterships – which were build by the Norwegian shipyard Fosen in Rissa, will not be confined simply to a shortening of the hulls by cutting out a middle section, but also involves a significant increase in passenger capacity from 300 to a total of 1,000 passengers.

The conversions will thus be closer to a comprehensive re-design of the two ro/ro ferries, which were previously employed in the Channel service between Hoek van Holland (Holland) and Killingholme (UK). This reconfiguration of major structural elements of these ferries represent an adaptation to the narrow ports on the East Coast of Canada. To this end, Lloyd Werft will install a second stern ramp for the ro/ro service and will also modify the existing stern ramp. In addition, both ships will be outfitted with a bow door, which will allow vehicles to roll straight to the vessels, and the installation of  five hoistable for the additional transport of passenger cars on Deck 3. A third bow thruster will enhance maneuverability on future traveling routs through the Canadian islands. The on-board loading systems will also be modified and expended. The shortening of the hulls by 12 m will not be the only factor changing appearance of the two ro/ro ferries, which are presently 212 m long and 26.7 m wide; significant expansion of the superstructures to accommodate another 31 crew cabins as well as the constructions of three lounges with reclining seats for up to 1,000 passengers and a new bar for each lounge, will also require a new section to be build in the fore quarter of Decks 7 to 9 to make room for the future passenger captivities. This, in turn, affects the ships' lifesaving systems: Two mess slides to rescue passengers in an emergency and two additional life boats will be places on board. The increases in passenger captivities also require the installation of new elevator and new staircases in each ship.

Stena RoRo AB has been a costumer of Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH for many years. It has chartered its two ro/ro ferries to Canada's Marine Atlantic Inc. for an initial period of five years. This agreement will extend the long-standing co-operation of the Swedish firm with Canadian partners. In its most recent project for Stena Line in 2006/2007, Lloyd Werft lengthened the 64,039 grt sisterships Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica, converting converting them into the world's largest passenger ro/ro ferries; this new contract, won in difficult times for the ship-building industry, represents not only successful acquisition for its order books but also renewed evidence of its outstanding competence and of the trust places in the Bremerhaven shipyard.

Ship Repair Journal, Dec 2010