Visborg was designed by OSK ShipTech and built by China's Guangzhou Shipyard International
By
Rebecca Gibson |
China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) has officially delivered Visborg, the first of two new dual-fuel ro-pax ferries, to Swedish shipping operator Rederi AB Gotland.
Christened on 8 December and handed over to Rederi AB Gotland on 14 December, the 200-metre-long Visborg can accommodate around 1,650 passengers and offers 1,750 lane metres for vehicles. The vessel’s dual-fuel engines will run primarily on LNG, which will significantly reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide emissions.
Danish company OSK-ShipTech acted as a consulting naval architect for Rederi AB Gotland during concept and contract designs. It also helped GSI with the basic naval architectural, interior and exterior designs.
“This vessel represents more than four years of very hard work and also the strategic development of OSK,” said Anders Ørgård, chief commercial officer at OSK Group. “We have been involved in many details of this vessel ensuring an energy optimised vessel with high-standard interiors and at the same time assisting GSI setting new standards in Chinese shipbuilding. Parallel to the building of Gotland’s Visborg and Thjelvar, we have established a joint venture together with GSI. The joint venture SinoDane (Guangzhou SinoDane Ship Design Co.) was created to ensure high-quality ro-pax tonnage based on Danish design and international standards.”
Visborg will operate services between Gotland’s largest city Visby and the ports of Nynaeshamn and Oscarshamn in mainland Sweden. Her sister ship, Thjelvar, is currently under construction at the GCI yard and is expected to undergo her first sea trials at the beginning of 2019 and be delivered next summer.