BUOY-LAYING BOAT CONVERTED TO ARCTIC TOUR VESSEL

A former buoy-laying

vessel has been converted into an Arctic expedition boat complete with two landing craft

MV Vikingfjord was built in 1974 by Norwegian shipyard Simek, which closed down in 2018 because of a lack of orders.

She is now owned by Myklebusthaug Management, headquartered in Fonnes, and before her new role as expedition vessel carried out various tasks, such as guarding cable-laying areas from trawlers in Hammerfest, northeast Norway, as well as laying buoys.

The 41.8-metre vessel has been re-built from the ground up, according to expedition operator Secret Atlas, which will charter the boat from Longyearbyen, on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, some 700 miles south of the North Pole.

Vikingfjord is having her engine replaced with a new fuelefficient Mitsubishi S12R-(Z3)MPTAW engine that is satisfied with EU stage IIIA & IMO-Tier2 emissions, improving the fuel consumption.

The owner did a previous expedition tracing the steps of a replica viking ship from Norway to Greenland and then to the USA with a film crew onboard Vikingfjord. This gave him the exploring bug, and now he is working with Secret Atlas to develop his first explorer expedition vessel

NOX cleaning is also being introduced to the funnel to reduce NOX emissions by up to 95% – ‘almost unheard of’ in such a small boat, says Marsh, because of the cost, but grants from the Norwegian government have helped with this.

Electricity will be generated from a new, more efficient propellor shaft and used to power the boat’s onboard functions, reducing the load on the main engine.

The super structure remains the same, but where there would have been cargo, cabins have been built.

Secret Atlas was set up in 2019 specifically to arrange 9-10 day expeditions for smaller boats. When they were approached by Myklebusthaug to convert the vessel for this use, they were keen.

“The owner did a previous expedition tracing the steps of a replica viking ship from Norway to Greenland and then to the USA with a film crew onboard Vikingfjord,” said Secret Atlas co-founder Andy Marsh. “This gave him the exploring bug, and now he is working with Secret Atlas to develop his first explorer expedition vessel.”

Secret Atlas will be the sole operator of Vikingfjord offering expedition micro cruises, photo tours and private charters commencing in June 2023. There are plans for future trips to Greenland and Antarctica.

Newbuild RoRo sets sail on test voyage

RoRo ferry built at German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has set sail for Bremerhaven on a test voyage.

Newbuild 782 - MV Tennor Ocean - is sailing to Lloyd Werft, where remaining work on the ship’s hull will be carried out to optimise performance data.

She will then embark on a multi-day test voyage on the North and Baltic Seas as part of a tightly scheduled programme in which all technical systems will be checked and nautical manoeuvres carried out.

En route to Bremerhaven, the vessel’s new 2.11m folding mast will be tested, having been developed at the shipyard specifically for this kind of vessel.

“It enables the passage through the Kiel

8 Vikingfjord, and how she will look when she takes tourists around the North Pole

Canal, which connects the Baltic and the North Sea,” said FSG. ”In this waterway, the mast height of a ship may not exceed 40 metres above the water level.”

MV Tennor Ocean can accommodate 279 truck trailers on more than 4,000 lane metres spread over four decks. She also has accommodation for 12 lorry drivers and 26 crew. The RoRo type 4100, which was developed by FSG and has already been built several times by the shipyard, is characterised by particularly low fuel consumption compared to the market and an innovative loading concept, FSG says.