The European licence deal provides for an initial trial period during which time each party will have the opportunity to work collaboratively and review progress prior to the commencement of the extended licence term, and MSL has also signed a Heads of Agreement with Cavotec that, pending a successful trial period, will open for discussion the opportunity for Cavotec to provide limited worldwide representation for MSL.

Technical director Robert Weber said MSL had completed construction of the MoorMaster 800 vacuum mooring system for the Port, which, he anticipated, would be installed between December 2004 and January 2005.

Weber said the port of Dover, the busiest ferry port in northern Europe, had selected the vacuum-based automatic mooring system for the new piers that it is building to overcome problems that the port and ferries using it have with swell. The port has a normal tidal range of 7m, but this can increase to as much as 10m at times.

'A report commissioned by Dover Harbour Board determines that the very specific environmental conditions encountered by ferries using the port are mostly determined by surge, and has led to traditional steel mooring wires breaking at times, ' Weber explained.

'Ships coming alongside the quays have to use their main engines to push into the berth, which is bad news for the engines, and leads to additional fuel consumption, and unnecessary emissions in the port environment.' As Weber also explained, using the engines in this manner to berth ships also creates significant propeller wash, which has been undermining existing structures.

The MoorMaster 800 is a shore-based version of the MoorMaster unit that is designed to meet the needs of larger ships in exposed seaway conditions where high windage is common.

Instead of a rope, the products use vacuum pads to provide the mooring attachment. Each pad has a measurable working load, providing a powerful physical attachment between ship and shore.

The Dover unit will range up and down the quay face, and in the installation at Dover, is designed to cope with tidal variations of up to 10m and surge conditions causing vertical, or fore and aft movement, of up to 1m per second. Typically between three and four units will be required for large ro-ro vessels with substantial windage area. The MoorMaster 800 has a design load of 80,000kg and outreach of 2,500mm.

After the initial MoorMaster 800 has been installed, tested and accepted into service, the Port of Dover is expected to acquire several more units, so that each of the new ferry berths at Dover has three of the units, with manufacturing taking place at Cavotec.