Maersk Line Adjusts Bows for Slow Steaming

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday February 11, 2013

Maersk Line says it is modifying the bows of five vessels to improve their fuel-efficiency by 8 percent and make them suitable for slow steaming.

The Boston class vessels were designed to operate at high speeds and were too expensive to use in the current environment, but Seago Line had expressed interest in the vessels if they were retrofitted.

Four of the vessels were modified in Qingdao China and delivered to Seago Line, but the fifth, the Maersk Brownsville, which was lying idle in Europe, would have been too expensive to move.

Saurabh Khanna, senior technical project manager for Maersk Line Ship Management, said the company came up with a solution: "If we cannot bring the vessel here, let us take the bulbous bow there."

The company said making the new bow in China was the most cost-effective option, and it was shipped on a Maersk Line vessel in five pieces for additional savings.

The retrofitted ship will enter service again as the Seago Piraeus.

Maersk Line says bulbous bows must be designed for a particular speed range to optimise their ability to counteract the force of waves generated as ships move through water.

As ships adopt slow steaming, they need different bow shapes to move efficiently and reduce their bunker consumption.
 

Ship & Bunker News Team
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