Page 32: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2013)

32 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? OCTOBER 2013 Marine Design Annual ? Vessel DesignWith an eye on the growing Intra-Asian trade routes Germanischer Lloyd (GL) developed a novel container vessel design concept: the C-Dragon. C-Dragon measures 211.9m in length between perpendiculars and 37.3m wide, with a loading capacity of 3,736 TEU. The concept targets the actual condition with short roundtrips and many port calls and is designed to outperform cascading older tonnage in terms of fuel efÞ ciency, port turnaround and cargo intake. ?Intra-Asian container trafÞ c is set to surge and vessels in this trade typically sail beneath their design speed and make frequent port calls - 13 on a typical north south trading route,? said Dr. Pierre C Sames, Senior Vice President, GL Research and Rule De- velopment. C-Dragon has a high ratio of on-deck to total container TEU capac- ity (2,376 TEU vs. 3,736 TEU) and less number of bays, compared to reference vessels studied for the design. This particular vessel layout is instru-mental in reducing port stay duration because the greater number of contain-ers on deck reduces the need to remove hatch covers, while fewer bays result in fewer crane movements. Port efÞ ciency simulations conducted using prototype software from GL, demonstrated that the average port stay was reduced from 15 to 14 hours for C-Dragon for each harbor stay. ?C-Dragon?s faster port turnaround allows speed reductions in transit and therefore related fuel cost savings, with-out compromising any cargo transport capacity, in comparison to competing vessels,? Dr. Sames explained. ?The ef- fect is more pronounced for vessels on short routes with many port calls.? For C-Dragon, average transit speed is re-duced from 15.5 knots to 15 knots.To lower steaming speeds and fuel costs, C-Dragon?s hull form has been optimized by FutureShip, GL?s consult- ing subsidiary. This optimization and a reduced design speed delivers an EEDI value, lower than the IMO reference line for 2025, and fuel consumption 30% lower than that of the slow-streaming 4,250 Panamax existing reference ves-sel. Furthermore, the wide beam hull ad-opted enables lower speeds and in most operating conditions eliminates the need for ballast water. With zero ballast water usage, C-Drag- on offers best-in-class deadweight ton- nage (DWT) utilization and outstanding cargo intake. For each TEU at 14 tons, it only needs 14.8 tons deadweight, almost four tons less than the current 4,250 TEU Panamax design, an additional potential for greater earnings.www.gl-group.com Year of the C-Dragon General Dynamics NASSCO entered into a contract with Seabulk Tankers for the design and construction in San Diego of two 50,000-dwt LNG-conver- sion-ready product carriers each with a 330,000 barrel cargo capacity. Construc- tion of the Þ rst tanker is scheduled to be- gin in late 2014, with deliveries sched-uled for the second quarter of 2016 and Þ rst quarter of 2017. These 610-ft. tankers are a continuation of the ECO tanker design, which is pur- ported to offer improved fuel ef Þ ciency and incorporate the latest environmental protection features, including a Ballast Water Treatment System. The ships will be designed by DSEC, a subsidiary of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engi-neering (DSME) of Busan, South Korea. DSEC?s ECO design achieves improved fuel efÞ ciency through several features, including a G-series MAN ME slow-speed main engine and an optimized hull form. The tankers will have conversion capable dual-fuel-capable auxiliary en-gines and the ability to accommodate the future installation of an LNG fuel-gas system and Type C LNG tanks. These additional tankers represent the continu-ation of NASSCO?s successful partner- ship with DSEC. This contract will be the fourth commercial collaboration be-tween NASSCO and DSEC.www.nassco.com NASSCO to Build Tanker Pair for Seabulk Photo: NASSCOMR #10 (26-33).indd 32MR #10 (26-33).indd 3210/2/2013 4:13:24 PM10/2/2013 4:13:24 PM