New conversion job for busy Diedrich

The conversion is designed to give the 40 year old ship a more modern look and bring it into line with the country’s latest passenger safety rules.

Diedrich built Frisia X in 1972 for local customer AG Reederei Norden-Frisia. With a beam of 7.3m and drawing just 0.98m, it carries 290 persons and is, along with Norden-Frisia’s nine other ships in service between the mainland and Norderey and Juist, a regular annual visitor to the yard.

This year however, as well as undergoing routine annual repair and maintenance, including the overhaul of its two Volvo Penta TAMD 163 main engines, Frisia X is being almost entirely gutted during a stay which Diedrich told MJ would last until late January or early February.

The ship arrived at the end of October along with Norden-Frisia’s 59.8m long, 12m beam Frisia 1. Both came in for routine repairs including underwater hull painting, bow thruster overhaul and GL inspection. The yard said the Schottel plant, propellers and shaft on Frisia 1 were also being checked over. That ferry, due for completion in mid to late December, is also getting new flooring and upholstery in the upper saloon and, like Frisia X, is being re-equipped to meet the new passenger carrying regulations. They include the installation of high pressure water cannon fire-fighting systems from FOGTEC. The windows have also received thicker glass and sealings.

Officials at Norden-Frisia were quoted as saying that Frisia X was being largely gutted into December and that crew and other areas were being rearranged and redesigned.

Other current work at the busy yard has included the repair and overhaul of the 42.2m long, 10m beam Bohlen & Doyen construction vessel Dorsch. The yard said it expected the vessel to be at the yard for more than two weeks until mid-November. A big part of the job, said Diedrich, was the removal of extensive rust and conservation work as well as GL inspection.

Earlier this year Diedrich, which is kept seasonally busy all year round for regular local operators of ferry and excursion craft, undertook another complex conversion job.

It involved the replacement of KHD engines with new Scania diesels in another 32m long excursion ferry, the Baltrum 11,as part of a major conversion. To facilitate engine removal and installation, Diedrich removed a section of the ship’s bottom.

The yard also undertook repairs and maintenance on the 44.6m RoRo ferry Störtebeker. That work also included inspection of propeller, shaft, rudder and bow thruster as well as repairs to the ship’s diesel engine.

By Tom Todd