Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

9 2 FERRY ORDER BOOK signed. Rauma Marine Constructions in Finland will start construction of the new 212-metre-long pair in spring 2022, with the first vessel to be delivered in late 2023 and the second one in late 2024. Replacing the 1998-built, 1,140-passenger and 1,852-lane-metre capacity Spirit of Tasmania I and Spirit of Tasmania II, the new 48,000gt LNG- fuelled ferries will accommodate 1,800 passengers and around 2,500 lane metres on two freight decks. As a first for TT- Line Tasmania, the ferries will boast a separate upper car deck. “The Bass Strait route is popular with local and foreign tourists alike, and the new vessels’ increased capacity will allow us to meet growing demand when passenger traffic trends recover from the pandemic,” says Bernard Dwyer, CEO of TT-Line. According to TT-Line chairman Michael Grainger, the contract will include up to AU$ 100 million ($74 million) of local Australian content. He also says that despite some increases in material costs, at current exchange rates, the building price was likely to be cheaper than the previously negotiated price pre-Covid-19. Back in Europe and the second new “Green Ship” for Germany’s TT-Line was launched at CMI Nanjing Jinling in July. The first vessel, Nils Holgersson, is slated for delivery in March 2022. Both ships mark TT’s first to use LNG and have been developed on the basis of its Green Ship corporate concept. They are designed for 800 passengers and more than 200 trucks, trailers and containers. This future-oriented ferry with a length of 230 metres will be the most environmentally friendly ferries in the company’s history and on the Baltic Sea. The delivery of the new Green Ships will be another central milestone in TT-Line’s endeavours to sustainably improve the travel experience for passengers and at the same time to set the new standard in terms of emissions reduction in the ferry industry. CFR Rauma Marine Constructions will build Spirit of Tasmania’s two new LNG-fuelled ro-pax ferries