During the Maritime Awards Gala on 4 November, the winner of the Ship of the Year Award will be announced. Although perhaps not the biggest ships built in the Netherlands, the nominees Gorinchem XII, Rijn and Sarissa do represent the Dutch shipbuilding industry’s innovative strength. Learn why.
The Maritime Ship of the Year Award (formerly KNVTS Ship of the Year Award) is characterised by a broad recognition of the Dutch maritime innovative strength when it comes to sailing equipment. Central to the assessment is the question: To what extent do design, technology, safety, construction and economic significance come together in one innovative ship?
This ship represents the top of the Dutch maritime sector. To be nominated, the ship must have been designed and largely have been completed in the Netherlands. The jury reports show what makes the nominated ships so special and they are presented here for each of the three nominees.
Also read: Yacht, ferry and dredger up for KNVTS Ship of the Year
Gorinchem XII – Holland Shipyards Group
The Gorinchem XII is a super light, zero-emission ferry developed for the municipality of Gorinchem. The ship can transport 100 people and 100 bicycles with low energy consumption and can be operated by just one person. Together with the charging system and the new landing pier in the ports for all water levels, a total transport system has been delivered. This has set a new standard.
CoCo Yachts designed the ship and started with monitoring and studying the energy use of the old ships. The outcome is an extremely light double ended catamaran with azimuthing thrusters. Manoeuvring time has been reduced by the improved routes in the ports. This allows the service speed to be reduced and, therefore, the energy consumption as well.
The hull shape has been optimised with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The effect of shallow water on resistance was also included in the analysis. Two contrarotating thrusters are installed for good manoeuvrability and minimal weight. The speed is optimised for minimum energy consumption, resulting in a 67-minute sailing time per roundtrip including charging.
Reducing weight as much as possible
The catamaran’s light construction has been carried out in every detail. All components on board were examined in terms of functionality versus weight. This made it possible to realise an extremely light ship, resulting in minimal resistance through the water. Very thin aluminium plates were chosen, with plate thicknesses of 4 to 5 mm for the hull and 2 to 2.5 mm for deck and superstructure.
The High Speed Code rules have been applied and supplemented with FEM calculations to get the most out of the weight savings. Similar choices regarding minimum weight have also been made for the furniture and other equipment on board.
Also read: Holland Shipyards and Riveer win innovation award
No paint and no deck crew
No paint has been applied to the ship. From experience from previous ships, no anti-fouling has been applied and cleaning the underwater hull every one to two years is sufficient. This ensures a minimalist yet functional outfitting of the ship.
Due to the special landing piers, no deck crew is required and the ship can be steered by one person. The ship is then held by a self-designed automatic mooring system. And can be charged in a few minutes for it to be able to sail for another hour.
This innovative design has set a new standard. By not only looking at the ship, but also the ports, construction routes, operational speed and balanced propulsion, very low energy consumption has been achieved. The ship and the operation have been optimised together, resulting in a total transport system with minimal energy consumption and maximum functionality.
Rijn – Shipyard Kooiman
The Rijn is one of the two newest water injection vessels built by Shipyard Kooiman in Zwijndrecht for dredging company Van Oord. To keep pace with the increasing volume of maritime transport, seaports and waterways must be and remain easily accessible to visiting ships. Maintenance will increase as a result. In this maintenance, water injection dredging is an efficient and energy-efficient method.
Water injection dredging (WID) is a dredging technique in which water is injected just above the bottom with a water injection bar. The fine sediment is loosened and moved “naturally” by the current that prevails on the spot. It is an efficient and environmentally friendly way to keep channels, ports and rivers at depth. Thanks to its high manoeuvrability, the Rijn can work very close to the banks, quay walls and jetties. The maximum dredging depth is 24 metres.
Hybrid energy management
The Rijn and its sister ship Rhône have been further developed from the same specifications as the previously built Maas and Mersey with innovative optimisations based on practical experience. During the design, a lot of attention was paid to efficient energy management.
The Rijn is equipped with a so-called hybrid energy management system. The power supply is provided by two main generators and two battery packs. The major consumers are the two rudder propellers, one bow thruster, two low pressure jet pumps and two winches to operate the U-shaped injection tube. All electrically powered.
The main alternating current (AC) generators power the direct current (DC) grid by means of two AC-DC converters. From the DC grid, the thrusters, pumps and winches are operated and controlled by frequency converters. Because WID is often dependent on the tidal current, it is not possible to dredge continuously. During the quiet periods, the crew sleeps. The batteries are the power supply at that point instead of the generator sets.
Batteries as peak shaver
Depending on the required activities (water injection dredging, mass flowing or power jetting), dredging can be done with one or two generator sets. Based on the required power, the power management system determines
whether one or two generators will deliver power, whether or not in combination with the battery pack as a “peak shaver”.
Compared to the two previously built WID vessels Maas and Mersey, for the Rijn the necessary adjustments to the software of the power management system have been made in order to reduce energy consumption and associated emissions.
Tier III and ULEV
The vessels comply with the Tier III regulations for NOX emissions and have the Bureau Veritas notation ULEV (Ultra-Low Emission Vessel). The Rijn has also been prepared for EU Stage V regulations.
The Rijn is equipped with a dynamic positioning (DP) system, which means that dredging can often be carried out in a highly pre-programmed and more efficient manner.
With the Rijn, Shipyard Kooiman has delivered a ship in which the innovations are entirely at the service of the efficient handling of the fuel during the WID work to be carried out. Basically, WID is already environmentally friendly; with the applied power management system, emissions will be minimal.
Also read: Van Oord christens new water injection dredgers and USV
Sarissa – Royal Huisman
Sarissa is an exceptional superyacht. Designed by leading yacht design firm Malcolm McKeon, an interior by Liaigre and built by Royal Huisman, this vessel is nothing short of a true head-turner. Not surprisingly, the yacht has already won a large number of awards in the superyacht world.
But the “Ship of the Year Award” is not about beauty – at least not on its own. Judging for this award is based on the technical side of the design and the innovative aspects. Looking a little further than the shiny exterior, this yacht turns out to be full of smaller and bigger innovative solutions. All ingeniously engineered and built into the very limited space characteristic of superyachts.
Retractable propulsion
The most striking innovative solution is the retractable propulsion, consisting of two electric thrusters tilting out of the hull just aft of the keel, developed in close collaboration between Royal Huisman and Hydrosta.
Sarissa is not the first sailing yacht with such retractable thrusters, but the integration of the electric motors into the struts of the thrusters is an absolute first. This integration made it possible to flexibly mount the thrusters, including casing (technically part of the shell), resulting in a huge reduction in noise and vibration levels.
Interestingly, the thrusters can also be used to generate power while sailing. This is intended more as a safety redundancy than for daily use, as Sipmarine’s propellers are entirely optimised for “forward sailing”. The latter fits in with the owner’s desire to look at energy-saving solutions in all aspects of this yacht.
Also read: Royal Huisman delivers sportfish yacht Special One
DC netwotk with batteries
A smart electrical DC network with significant battery capacity, for example, made it possible to fit smaller and more efficient generator sets. These can now run under better loading, while large power peaks are absorbed by the battery pack. The latter plays a role, for instance, when many winches have to run simultaneously during complex sailing manoeuvres.
After all, these yachts are used for serious racing too. These winch powers are significant, imagine, for example, a mainsail area of more than 1000 square metres.
Complex building process
Building the yacht was a very complex process, due to a combination of the aforementioned lack of space in super-sailing yachts and the huge number of systems. Besides everything that should already be on board “normal yachts”, Sarissa also had to be fitted with a large number of very complex sailing systems. To name a few: a whole battery of below-deck winches for halyards, sheets and backstays, an impressive lift keel to allow this deep-draught vessel to enter normal harbours – and, of course, the retractable propulsion.
With Sarissa, Royal Huisman has managed to seriously raise the bar for super-sailing yachts yet again.
Also read: Neptune’s Canopée bags 2023 Ship of the Year Award
