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First-of-class Rickmers Hamburg is every inch the modern maid-of-all-work, offering a 640-ton unit lift capacity along with a vari- able hold space configuration suited to the widest range of breakbulk and conventional cargoes as well as large, indivisible items of freight. The 30,000-dwt Superflex series is due to extend to nine ships before the end of next year, with construction having been dis- tributed among three yards in China.

The Rickmers-Linie program entails five vessels from Xiamen Shipyard and two from

Jinling Shipyard, plus the Rickmers Ham- burg and a sistership from Shanghai Ship- yard. The five-hold design is fitted with four, high-stooled deck cranes, two of which have a 320-ton maximum lift capacity, while one is rated at 100-tons and other at 45-tons.

By using the two largest units in tandem, piece weights up to 640-tons can be handled.

The hatchway layout provides openings up to 105 ft. (32 m) in length and 34 ft. (10.3 m), accessing holds fitted with adjustable tweendecks. The below-deck arrangements mean that the hold spaces can be highly compartmentalized using three flexible tweendecks, or can be configured to give various hold heights up to 15.7-m in accor- dance with cargo needs, making for opti- mum space utilization.

Name Harad

Type VLCC

Owner Hellespont

Builder Samsung Heavy Industries

Harad is the first in a four-ship double- hulled series of VLCCs constructed for

Hellespont of Greece by the South Korean builder Samsung Heavy Industries. During construction, the four vessels were re-sold to

NSCSA of Saudi Arabia. The vessel, which incorporates a number of technical features to ensure high levels of environmental pro- tection and high performance, holds a large main engine, improved strength by increased plate thickness, improved service lifetime for coatings by increased paint specification and advanced inert gas system.

The hull form of the vessel has been specifically remolded to meet Hellespont's requirements and differs from the conven- tional VLCCs, featuring a 'blunt' fore part and a breadth of 190 ft. (58 m) to reduce hull deflection. As a result Harad benefits from a reduction in hull deformation by around 10 percent. This has been achieved by strength- ening the primary member, double structures and buttress. The hull structure has been designed in accordance with the require- ments of ABS Safehull and LR' ShipRight, with a structural quality maintained with the usage of higher tensile steel to 45 percent of the total hull structural steel weight. In addi- tion Z quality steel were used for outermost Circle 217 on Reader Service Card or visit www.maritimereporterinfo.com

Great Ships of the Year strake in the inner bottom and 'E' grade steel in the lowest hopper strake.

The number of individual components within the hull structures and the size of the painting area in the water ballast area have been reduced by using a construction method based on one internal bottom plate for each block. According to the shipyard, this reduces the number of maintenance points onboard the vessel. Local strength require- ment means that the bottom longitudinal stiffener of the cargo well has to be 18 mm thick compared with conventional VLCCs, which tend to be 12 mm. This approach vir- tually eliminates the possibility of welding defects and subsequent paint damage since there is no welding seam.

HARAD is powered by an Samsung Wart- sila NSD 8RTA84T-D engine developing (MCR) 33,300 kW (44,640 bhp) at 76 rpm.

The service speed is 16.1 knots at main engine output of 26,780 kW (35,900 bhp) including 15 percent power margin. The main engine operates on heavy fuel oil with a maximum viscosity of 700cSt at 50°C. The large power main engine enables consider- ably higher speed when utilizing the NCR of the engine.

Great Ships continued on page 37 / HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES CO., LTD.

LULULU.hhi.ca.kr iiiiiiinii tiviummniMMniu! muunmunmumuutt hiiiiiih rm j?lTBNN\Cn r Tomorrow

As the world's teadiftgshipbuilder,

Hyundai is unrivaled in building quality ships as well as in meeting clients' specific needs.

Whenever we build ships for our clients, we build ships of shared dreams.

December, 2002 31