First look at new ‘freighter flex’ vessels

The latest designs for the new 'freight flex' vessels. Photo: Leadship

Transport bosses have shared the latest designs for the newly named “freighter flex” vessels.

CMAL chief executive Kevin Hobbs said the new vessels, which are hoped to commence operations on the Northern Isles Ferry Service in 2029, had undergone recent design refinements.

Addressing today’s (Tuesday) Shetland external transport forum, Mr Hobbs said modelling of the previous design found the vessels could fail when entering Aberdeen Harbour in strong winds. 

He said the latest designs had undergone a 15 per cent reduction in their “windage”, which had achieved successful entry to the harbour under the same modelling exercise.

Mr Hobbs said the new vessels would travel at speeds of up to 20 knots, which is significantly faster than the current freight vessels, Helliar and Hildasay, and broadly similar to the Hjaltland and Hrossey passenger ferries.  

They will have 40 per cent more freight capacity, which Mr Hobbs said provided “quite a lot of headroom” for future growth.

The vessels will operate in two modes – pure freight, or with space for up to 200 passengers in a mx of cabins and some pods.

Forum members quizzed Mr Hobbs on the types of accommodation.

Lerwick North and Bressay councillor Arwed Wenger asked how many cabins would be included.

Mr Hobbs said up to 40 people would be accommodated in two sets of pods, “which I know is not everyone’s favourite thing” but was “quite an efficient use of space”.

The remaining 160 spaces would come from a mixture of two and four berth cabins.

The meeting also heard calls for different types of accommodation, including “Norröna-style” cabins as well as Japanese-style capsule hotels.

Shetland South councillor Alex Armitage said the Norröna ferry offered horizontal sleeping bunks, which were more popular than the NorthLink pods in which passengers cannot fully recline.

He asked whether “high density flat sleeping places” could be included in the new vessels’ design.

NorthLink managing director Stuart Garrett said the regulations for horizontal sleeping facilities were measured against different criteria than for seats.

He said the pod lounges offered the best use of space available.

Mr Hobbs indicated that different type of pod lounge could be considered but did not divulge further details.

He also offered assurances the recent design changes would not reduce the vessels’ performance.

“Nobody is downgrading the capability of the vessel in terms of its carrying capacity for either passenger or freight, its simply improving the resilience of the vessel,” he added.

Working with Greek-based designers, Leadship, Mr Hobbs said the focus was now on what fuel the ferries would run on.

While previous preferences had been liquefied natural gas (LNG), Mr Hobbs said the latest thinking was to use  marine gasoil (MGO).

With a port in Kent offering the only LNG fuelling opportunities, Mr Hobbs said there was no prospect of using that form of fuel.

Design work is also continuing to refine the lines of the vessel so it as as “hydrodynamic as it can be in all types of sea conditions.

Mr Hobbs said he wanted to ensure the ships could “turn on a sixpence”.

All of the design work is expected to be finished by mid-December, at which point CMAL will develop a tender packaged.

“That is always on the premise that the money is available,” he added.

“We can’t go out to tender on a wing and a prayer.”

Mr Hobbs said it would cost shipyards around  £1m in resources to put a tender together for the new vessels and CMAL was not willing to engage in that process without certainty the money is there.

Transport Scotland’s Chris Wilcock said the business case for the new vessels was “still progressing in line with expectations”.

He said that was expected to conclude by the end of the financial year.

And while the project has not been hit by the Scottish government’s warning of the need to make £500m in savings, Mr Wilcock said there would be “difficult decisions” when the business cases neared conclusion.