The vessels will be owned by Gaiamare Oy, a Meriaura Group company. Both 4700dwt Eco Coasters have now been coated with the game-changing Ecospeed hard coating above and below the water line in VG Shipping’s red and blue livery. Ismo Saaros, Director, Project Management, VG-Shipping, explained: “We wanted to produce the cleanest, most environmentally-efficient coasters of their class so we specified several ‘green’ solutions, including a ballast water management system, a Selective Catalytic Reduction system for reducing NOx emissions and the Ecospeed hull coating. “We didn’t want to use a traditional antifouling system because of the chemicals that they contain and found the Ecospeed solution was the most effective coating system for reducing resistance.
With a hard coating we are also permitted to clean the hull underwater in the ports where we operate without damaging the surrounding environment.” The environmental and hard wearing performance of the coating were also aspects flagged up by Robert Jan Steenbergen, Project Manager at Royal Bodewes, He said: “Since Ecospeed is not a biocide-containing antifouling it is more environmentally-friendly and because these vessels will operate in the Baltic we needed a coating suitable for sailing in ice. It lasts longer.” Commenting on the application of the coating, Steenbergen, added: “It was the first time the yard had applied Ecospeed on this scale, to a complete hull, but application was very straight forward. “Applied under Subsea Industries’ supervision, the result is very good: the preparation, the blasting and how it looks gives us confidence that this coating will perform exceptionally well.”
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