Biggest Bight cat sails through check

It is the third time that the 36 knot, 52m long and 12.3m wide cat, which operates for FRS Helgoline between Hamburg/Cuxhaven and Heligoland, has gone to the BREDO yard for regular annual overhaul.

FRS Helgoline marketing manager Birte Dettmers reported to MJ that the work had been carried out in the yard’s covered floating dock after the ship left winter lay-up in Hamburg.

BREDO’s Dirk Harms told MJ that Floating Dock 2 had been used. He also reported that the yard was building another novel floating facility, a storage hall, from left-over sections bought in a cost saving exercise from Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven after the recent shortening of two Ro-Ro ferries.

Apart from routine repair and maintenance, the Halunder Jet overhaul covered GL class work which Dettmers said included a Megger Test of electrical installations and safety checks and maintenance on equipment including life rafts, fire extinguishers and CO2 plant. The ship’s air-conditioning plant was also overhauled and insulation foil added to the Comfort Class windows on the catamaran, a feature of which are its panorama 360 degree views. Cleaning of the underwater hull was also carried out.

The ship draws 2.5m maximum and weighs 202 tons. It is powered by four 1,740 kW MTU main engines and boasts two Volvo 139kW auxiliaries as well as four KaMeWa Type 63 SII Waterjet drives.

Completed at Norway’s Fjellstrand shipyard in 2003 for a reported €12.5m, Halunder Jet is one of two ships serving with Helgoline and carries about 580 passengers on the nearly four hour journey. In 2010 it carried about 85,000 passengers. The other ship with Helgoline is Atlantis, a conventional four deck ferry for up to 1,000 passengers.

By Tom Todd