Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2, 2006)

10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

News

Aker Yards entered into a contract with

Stena Rederi AB in Gothenburg (Sweden) to deliver two (plus two option)

Super Ferries. The value of the contract is approximately $512.4m, and deliveries are scheduled for the first and third quar- ter of 2010. "After several years, we are very pleased to renew our customership with such an innova- tive client as Stena, and are looking forward to a long future cooperation," said

Karl Erik Kjelstad (pictured left),

President & CEO of

Aker Yards.

Although the yards traditionally serv- ing the ferry busi- ness (Finland and

France) were fully booked for the delivery dates requested by the client, Aker Yards, with its 17 yards, had the possibility to offer building of the ferries in

Germany. Aker Yards, Germany has experience in building passenger ships and RoRo ferries, and the designer, Aker

Yards, Rauma has experience in designing and building of passenger and car ferries for more than 20 years.

The 62,000 gt ships will measure 787.4 x 105 ft. (240 x 32 m). There will be 5,500 m trailer lanes and 700 m car lanes of vehicle space, and the passenger capacity will be 1,200 in each.

With main engine output of 4 x 8,000 kW — powered by four-stroke diesel engines — they will reach a service speed of 22 knots

Common rail & pump and line formats to 2,000 Bar

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Aker Yards to Build World's Largest Ferries

Underwater Noise

Measurement Standard

Working Group Forming

The development of an entirely new commercial standard for "Underwater

Noise Measurement of Ships" will commence in early 2007. ANSI-

Accredited Standards Committee S12

Committee on Noise recently voted unanimously to form a Working Group (WG) for the development of an under- water noise measurement standard.

For many years, the field of under- water noise from ships has been the exclusive specialty of the Navy.

However, non-navy vessels are look- ing to be just as quiet so that they can perform better science. "Green Ships" are being conceived in order to have less emission into the ocean. One such quiet ship is the new Fisheries

Research Vessels (FRV) that the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) is building in

Mississippi.

The goal of this project is to develop an American National Standard for the measurement of underwater noise lev- els of ships using commercial technol- ogy.

One aim is that the standard would be applicable to any open ocean site in the world and not require traveling to a special acoustic test range.

However, the committee's scope of work will include neither regulatory actions nor the development of any underwater noise level limit. (Since 1995, recommendations for underwa- ter noise levels for these types of research vessels have been available [ICES CRR209]).

Organizations procuring or operating quiet ships, naval architects, and acoustical engineers should be inter- ested in helping to develop this new standard.

The Working Group is being formed at this time. If your organization is interested feel free to contact the new

S12 Working Group chair, Michael

Bahtiarian at [email protected].

Euronav Records

Good Results

Euronav NV reported provisional financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2006. The com- pany had net income of $53.8m (2005: $5.8m) or $1.02 (2005: $0.11) per share, for the three months ended

September 30, 2006. EBITDA was $110.5m (2005: $56.9m).

Euronav owned VLCCs operated through the Tankers International (TI)

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