Delivery odyssey for Danube newbuild

Esther Schwarzfischer at owners Donauschiffahrt Wurm and Köck in Passau, told Maritime Journal the new 44.97m long and 7.54m wide SUNliner, which carries 220 passengers and draws one metre, had undergone the “odyssey” of a ten day delivery journey through Germany before reaching its new home.

The boat was sailed up the Elbe from builders Bolle Werft in Derben, then west along the Mittelland Canal and down the Rhine before sailing east up the Main and then south east through the Rhine Main Danube Canal, whose locks are among the highest in Europe. On the Mittelland Canal the wheelhouse had to be removed and stowed amidships because of low bridges on that waterway.

Bolle, which specialises in innovative passenger and work boats, describes SUNliner as an “Aquacabrio”. Its bow and stern superstructures are fixed but a central superstructure section of about 15m can be retracted in two sections onto the stern structure when the weather is good.

The central section is fully glazed to create a glass dome effect and provide a view of 180 degrees. A wooden deck and palm trees add to the holiday atmosphere on board and Donauschiffahrt calls the whole “an absolutely unique shipping experience”.

Schwarzfischer said ships of the same or of similar type were already in operation in Berlin and in Prague. However SUNliner was “the first such boat in our fleet and is, as far as we know, also unique to the Danube”, she told this correspondent.

Propulsion consists of two, six cylinder Deutz BF6M1013MCP main engines of 169kW and there are also two Schottel SRP 110 rudder propellers. The boat cost €2.3 million, to which the EU’s Fund for Regional Development also contributed.

Schwarzfischer told this correspondent the Bolle Shipyard had been chosen for the new ship because of its patent on the “Aquacabrio”.

“It is also a family concern just like us and we have much in common. That promised to be a good base for cooperation and it turned out to be the case“, she said. “Despite a tight construction time-table and some unexpected difficulties along the way, the yard was able to deliver to our full satisfaction”, Schwarzfischer declared.

There were however, she added, no plans to introduce further ships of the SUNliner cabrio type or size – at least “not in the near future”.

Donauschiffahrt operates 13 ships in Regensburg, Passau – and in Linz across the border in Austria – and “this seems to be just the right size for our medium-sized company to handle”, Esther Schwarzfischer told Maritime Journal.

By Tom Todd