[ 14 ] THE SHIP OF THE FUTURE main engines driving twin controllable pitch propellers and four auxiliaries generating the electrical power, providing the hotel load. To enhance manoeuvrability, the Spirits boasted three bow thrusters with a total output of 9MW and high-lift Becker Marine rudders, located in-line with the twin shafts. TACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS Fast forward to 2017 and climate change was topping the agenda in the wake of the COP 21 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Paris in late 2015. Earlier, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), had already set limits on NOx and SOx emissions from ship exhausts. Quite early on in the project, our ambition was to build a best-in-class Channel ferry with the lowest possible emissions footprint. Shortly after our spring 2017 visit to Nor-Shipping, we invited renowned naval architects to tender for a concept design to go out to shipyards. Besides Deltamarin, the naval architects of the Spirit-class, Denmark’s Knud E. Hansen and OSK Design as well as the UK’s Houlder were interviewed. We kept scoresheets with series of questions, scoring each answer. Each naval architecture consultancy was asked the same questions, yet OSK Design came out head and shoulders above the rest on account of their forward-thinking and methods of operating. A good example was the modular concept of the public spaces, making it possible to change spaces easily by using raised floors and moveable bulkheads. This modular concept was high on our list and was exactly what OSK Design proposed. The project developed organically with all the do’s and don’ts as well as the pros and cons of a single-ender versus a double-ender design carefully analysed. SINGLE- OR DOUBLE-ENDER? Back in 2017 we were not set on any particular design principles even when speaking to the naval architects, although we had clearly defined our commercial imperatives. These were maximising our share of a growing freight market and discouraging new entrants, taking a quantum leap forward in reducing our costs per transported unit, overtaking the advantage of our competitors on the Dover– Calais route, differentiating our customer offer from those of other ferry operators in Europe and closing the gap on Eurotunnel’s speed advantage by benchmarking the duration from motorway to motorway rather than berth to “ Each naval architecture consultancy got the same questions, yet OSK Design came out head and shoulders above the rest on account of their forward-thinking and how they operated” Nexus of inspiration and engagement with the build, the Ship of the Future’s dedicated think-tank team room at P&O Ferries’ Dover headquarters
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