Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2001)

Great Ships off 2001

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT

Stena Vision (below) and Stena Victory rightfully claim honors as truly unique and outstanding vessels of 2001.

Ship Name

Shipbuilder

Ship Type

Owner

Stena Vision/Stena Victory

Hyundai Heavy Industries

VLCC

Concordia Maritime

Stena Vision — built for Concordia

Maritime AB, a public tanker company of the Swedish-based Stena organization — is a unique 315,000-dwt VLCC built by Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries

Co., Ltd. (HHI) in that it features twin- engines and twin-propellers. The 1,102 ft. (336 m) long Stena V-Max design

VLCC differs from other large tankers built in the world to date.

The V-Max tankers have been con- ceived with a clear customer focus. The objective has been reduce oil companies' logistic costs, by offering a 30 percent higher loading capacity on a limited draft relative to more conventional designs of newbuilding VLCC, on an equivalent bunker consumption. Stena

Vision is claimed to be the first VLCC to satisfy Det Norske Veritas' requirements for the class notation RPS (redundant propulsion, separate). The premium entailed in a dual main engine installa- tion, with two shaftlines and twin pro- pellers, plus the associated special underwater form, is largely offset by the increased revenue-earning capacity and potential savings in unit transport costs.

Concordia's investment in the pioneer- ing V-Max type was quickly vindicated by Sun Oil Company's three-year char- ter commitments to the newbuilding pair. As a consequence of the agreement, the twin-skeg Stena Vision, joined in

July by Stena Victory, will become a regular feature of the traffic to Sun's two refineries near Philadelphia.

However, options on a further six such vessels appended to Concordia's con- tract with Hyundai Heavy Industries have not been exercised, in the absence of satisfactory agreements with other charterers. The reported 10-12 percent higher price commanded by each of the

V-Max duo at the time of contracting, relative to more standard VLCC capaci- ty, is a measure of the premium entailed in conferring such a high margin of safe- ty. Although there would currently appear to be few charterers worldwide willing to pay significantly more for quality tonnage designed and engi- neered to confer very high safety fac- tors, Concordia Maritime's managing director Lars Carlsson believes that the

V-Max investment will pay-off in the long-term.

In addition to double hulls, the VLCC has double, completely separate engine rooms, double rudders and double pro- pellers. This twin-engine configuration gives the VLCC substantial advantages since one main engine can be shut down for maintenance while the vessel contin- ues its voyage with the other. But these double functions represent an extra safe- ty feature, and provide the VLCC with maneuverability touted as far superior to that of other conventional VLCCs. "This ship not only has unique double hull design features, but is also equipped with two separate engines in two com- pletely separate engine rooms, two rud- ders and sets of steering gear, two pro-

Stena Vision/Stena Victory Main Particulars

Length, (o.a.) 1,092 ft. (333 m)

Length PP 1049 ft. (320 m)

Beam 230 ft. (70 m)

Depth (molded) 84 ft. (25.6 m)

Design Draft 55.1 ft. (16.8 m)

Scantling Draft 62.3 ft. (19 m)

Ballast Draft 28.2 ft. (8.6 m)

Deadweight at design draft 268,000 mt

Deadweight at Scantling draft 314,000 mt

Main engines (2 Sets) ... .MAN B&W 7S60 MC-C

Maximum output two engines31,570 kW 42,900 bhp

Speed at NCR

Design draft 16.9 knots

Scantling draft 16.3 knots

Ballast draft 17.7 knots

Generators Hyundai

Emergency generator Ssangyong - Cummins

Motor starters Hyundai

Couplings Vulkan

Engine controls valmara

Steering gear Porsgrunn

Deck machinery Rolls-Royce

Shafting HH1-EMD

Bearings Blohm + Voss

VHF radio Sailor

SSB radio Sailo

Radar Hitec Marine

Compass C-Plath

GPS Trimbl

Autopilot Litton

Collision Avoidance Hitec Marine

Pumps Shinko

Lifeboats Harding

Liferafts DSB

Davits Schat-Harding

Firefighting NK Co. Ltd.

Waste Management Kangrim

Desalination Alfa Laval

Cargo control Valmarine

Ballast control Valmarin

Computer Meca pellers and duplicate control systems.

The V-MAX is thus designed to over- come any single type of system failure - a yet unrivalled active safety capability which we consider just as important as the passive safety of a double hull," said

Lars Carlsson, Concordia's Managing

Director. "Statistically more than 30 per- cent of serious tanker accidents are caused by vessels losing control due to machinery and system failures. This risk is all but eliminated in the V-MAX.

Using only one of its twin engines, the vessel can maneuver during a period of (Continued on page 48) 26 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News