Rederij Doeksen has tested the Marine Evacuation System of its new LNG catamaran ms Willem Barentsz. The system was activated on the port side of the ship, after which the chute and the landing platform were automatically inflated.
The drill took place on Wednesday 19 February under the supervision of an inspector from class agency Lloyd’s Shipping and accompanied by experts from the supplier (Survitec).
After the landing platform was inflated, the second raft was manually activated. The Marine Evacuation System (MES) system on port side can hold a total of 450 passengers in the event of an emergency. On the starboard side, there is another MES system with a capacity of 300 passengers.
A group of volunteers were subsequently able to leave the new catamaran via the slide, after which they switched to the second raft and were evacuated by BDS Harlingen’s emergency vessel Nomad.
‘We have chosen to place the same type of Marine Evacuation Systems (MES) on the new ships as on our ferry ms Friesland. We are very pleased to report that the test went flawlessly,’ says Paul Melles, director of ship owner Doeksen. ‘The tested system will now be removed from the ship and will go to Zeeland for service. Here, the entire system will be checked, cleaned and repacked, so that it can be placed back on board again soon.’
First LNG Ferries in the Netherlands
Rederij Doeksen’s new LNG catamarans are the first (single fuel) LNG ferries in the Netherlands and the first ships in the world with single fuel LNG engines directly driving rudder propellers with fixed propellers. The introduction of LNG as a fuel means a substantial reduction in harmful emissions: eleven per cent less CO2, ninety per cent less nitrogen oxides (NOx), one hundred per cent less sulphur oxides (SOx) and 95 per cent less particulates. Noise will be reduced by between fifty and 75 per cent.
The ships are also provided with numerous environmentally friendly and efficiency enhancing applications. For example, residual heat is converted into electrical energy to power the bow thrusters and solar panels have been installed on board, which supply energy to the ship’s grid.
Both ferries will replace car ferry ms Midsland (1974) on the route to the Dutch Wadden Islands Vlieland and Terschelling.
