Hadag takes 10th in series

The new building, which is reported to have cost EUR2.1m, boasts the latest in river ferry technology, including ELNA Elbe River chart radar Type 4007, radar pilot and DPGS. It is designed to cope with Hadag passenger totals which have nearly tripled to 6.4 million a year in the past ten years.

Wilhelmsburg meets stringent Hamburg safety regulations and also boasts two DSB mini-slide rescue systems. It is also the first of the Class 2000 ships to be equipped with an AIS (automatic identification system), Model VDL 6000, something which all other Hadag ships will now receive.

Like the two vessels to follow, the latest boat is 29.85m long and 8.13m wide with a side height of 2.6m, drawing 1.7m. It is equipped for 250 passengers and redundant operation with two Volvo-Penta D12-B diesel engines with a combined output of 662 kW and Schottel SRP 200 propeller plant with two Rolls Royce rudder propellers. Speed is put at 12 knots.

Wilhelmsburg also has a KHD Deutz BS 4M 1013 EC 102 kW auxiliary engine and a 50 kW transverse Jastram thruster to hold it steady without being required to tie up at landing pontoons.

The follow-up Hadag Class 2000 newbuildings are for delivery in June and September 2009. Like nearly all their Class 2000 predecessors since the first ship, St Pauli in 1997, they are being built by local German shipyard SSB Spezialschiffbau in Oortkaten.

Reflecting the currently healthy situation for German small ship building, of the 17 north European yards invited to tender for the 12th ship in the class, seven said they were too busy to take the job on.

By Tom Todd