Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1999)

Investment in Design strength of Vickers Ulstein is more than the sum of its parts. A number of new products have been brought to market since the May 4 formal completion of the acquisition, more are planned in the short-term, and the new division is already benefiting from joint procure- ment initiatives.

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Bespoke fruit carriers

Italian business verve married with solid ship design skills has produced a new breed of refrigerated cargo vessel as the keypoint in a program of raising the efficiency of a Trans-Atlantic supply system linking plantations with retailers.

With her classical reefership fair lines and lean form, the 11,500-dwt Cala Pino is all the more striking for her pair of big sideport doors in the starboard shell, and two, high-stooled cranes on the weath- erdeck. These are the main accou- trements of the system of rapid cargo throughput central to the bespoke design developed for the Orsero Group ship- ping companies Armatori Partenopei and Cosiarma.

Delivered in August, Cala Pino leads a class of four 600,000-cu. ft. capacity newbuilds scheduled to be phased into service over the remainder of 1999 from

Fincantieri's Ancona shipyard. The series will boost the carrier's scope and productivity in the trade with bananas and other fruit from Latin America and the Caribbean, to southern Europe.

Although the vessel type can take a weatherdeck stow of 184 reefer boxes of 40-ft, the tonnage investment program is an endorsement of pallet-optimized sea transportation methods at a time of growing penetration of the global reefer trades by the pure containership. It is also significant from a point of view of timing, with new construction activity in the conventional sector at a low ebb.

Furthermore, the project is a testament to Fincantieri's broad-based design and build know-how during a period when so much attention has been focused on the group's trials and tribulations in the cruise ship domain.

The Italian hub for the Cala Pino and her 21.5-knot sisters will be Vado Lig- ure, near Savona, on the Italian Riviera, where the parent group controls a dedi- cated fresh fruit and vegetable handling facility, known as Reefer Terminal.

With her three holds divided by three tweendecks, the new vessel provides for stowage of more than 4,900 pallets of perishable goods over a total refrigerat- ed deck are of around 6,600 sq m. The home-grown side loading and discharge system, from engineering firm

Goriziane, offers one of the most expe- ditious outturn rates throughout the industry, keyed to the owner's expecta- tions as to fast turnarounds at Vado Lig- ure.

The upperdeck reefer container capac- ity, while offering a supplementary east- bound shipment capability, has the merit of providing an eastbound payload from

Europe. The Fincantieri-developed design thereby provides the requisite stability and safety for making Atlantic transits with the holds empty but with a full weatherdeck stow. The Cala Pino- headed quartet constitutes the second fertile collaboration between Fincantieri and the Orsero Group, following the completion at Ancona of the 365,000-cu ft Cala Pevero type during 1990-92.

Although significantly smaller in enclosed volume, of more modest power and speed ratings, and vested with a sin- gle sideloader rather two units, the 9,000-dwt Cala Pevero class has undoubtedly colored the Cala Pino pro- ject.

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