The delivery of the ?5mStrelasund came four months late because of the bankruptcy proceedings, which officials said were prompted by the poor economic climate and a lack of follow-up orders.

Yard MD Georg Hockels said in October the yard was still ready to take on work but that the crunch time would come between mid November and mid December. The yard was holding its own as of December with small repairs and other engineering work.

The 32.5m long and 8.7m wide Strelasund has meanwhile been handed over in Stralsund to her owners, the environment ministry in the east German Baltic state of MecklenburgVorpommern, and formally named. The ship should have been delivered early this year. That was postponed to July and then August because of difficulties involving the insolvency of a supplier (see MJ July 2002).

Strelasund will serve on the Baltic coast between Lubeck and the River Oder on the Polish border. She can take more than 200 tons of spilled oil on board.

She is driven by two MAN Type D2842LE main engines each of 441kW which are reduced to 375kW and drive two Schottel HRP 411-51 rudder propellers.

It has been a disastrous year for the Germersheim yard. The 2,087 grt ferry Le Joola, which it built in 1990, sank off Gambia in September with the loss of more than 1,000 lives.

MJ Information No: 17707