Owner Tankreederei Gausch in Baden Wurttemberg decided last year, as part of a future, environment-oriented investment programme, that new tonnage would be double-hulled. SET said brand product shippers were increasingly insisting on double-hull vessels for inland transport. Not only ocean-going tonnage was facing demands for increased safety, it said.

After Piz Bever arrived at SET, her stern afterbody was separated from the main bow ship section on the slipway.

The afterbody was transferred to a shipbuilding hall where it was joined to a new, double hulled 71.55m long and 10.5m wide main section weighing 400 tons.

The new section had been transported to SET along the River Oder, the Elbe-Havel Canal and the River Elbe after construction at Polish Shipyard Navistor Dobrzen near Wroclaw.

A second hull was built around the old, narrower PizBever afterbody bringing the beam throughout to 10.5m and her length to 86m. All her other technical parameters remained the same, SET said.

While the afterbody of the Piz Bever was being transformed, her old main ship section was also being upgraded undercover at SET. That section has now been added to the separated afterbody section of a sister vessel, Cynthia , belonging to the same owner. The floating out of the second new/old ship was due as MJ went to press, with owners Gauss promising to come back for more.