The world’s first very large catamaran Ro-Pax ferry powered by dual-fuel reciprocating engines has entered service. The Incat Crowther 123 Eleanor Roosevelt was built in Europe by the partnership of Spanish shipyard Astilleros Armon, designer Incat Crowther, and vessel operator Baleària.The Incat Crowther 123 demonstrates fresh thinking in the sector with its highly customized design and raft of new technology.
As well as a design developed to address the operator’s specific conditions and requirements, Eleanor Roosevelt validates a new local market option for European operators seeking aluminium ships of large size and complexity. Efficiently built by Astilleros Armon at its Gijon shipyard in Spain using modern, modular construction techniques, the vessel demonstrates a high level of technical capability, capacity and superb build quality.
The operator Baleària has been innovative in introducing LNG powerplants to their fleet, pioneering agreements with fuel and machinery suppliers. Liquefied natural gas is one of the fossil fuels least damaging to the environment. Its use reduces CO2 emissions by 30%, NOx by 35% and eliminates sulfur and other particulates.The use of LNG fuel combined with Incat Crowther's latest-generation hull form offers relatively low fuel consumption for a vessel of this size.
Interesting interior fitout spaces developed by Oliver Design of Spain are divided into dedicated zones and offer facilities such as multiple bars, a market and a food court, kindergarten and outdoor terrace. There are also kennels to allow travellers to bring their pets, with kennel monitoring via a smart phone app, and electric vehicle charging stations. Boarding is by way of QR codes on passengers’ mobile devices, whilst high-speed Wi-Fi is available throughout the vessel.
As well as state-of-the-art amenity, passengers will be offered a high level of comfort. Motions have been reduced with the latest iteration of Incat Crowther’s proven hull form, coupled with an operation-specific center bow design. A retractable centre T-foil will also be used to smooth the ride, whilst an isolated superstructure provides ultra-quiet passenger spaces.
Eleanor Roosevelt has capacity for 450 cars and 1200 passengers. The main vehicle deck has a height clearance of 4.85m, affording 500 lane metres of truck capacity.
The Incat Crowther 123 Dual-Fuel Ro-Pax is powered by a quartet of Wartsila 16V31DF main engines. Each of these engines produces 8800kW and drives a Wartsila LJX 1500 waterjet.
Eleanor Roosevelt builds on Incat Crowther and Astilleros Armon’s capability to offer a quality European-built option for fast ro-pax operators.