The Port of Hamburg is getting two new boats to take the pilots on board incoming and outgoing ships. The first boat, "Hamburg Pilot 3", has now been transferred by sea. The delivery of the "Hamburg Pilot 1" is also planned for this year; both will replace one of the old pilot boats.
The pilot transfer vessels will be built at the Estonian shipyard Baltic Workboats AS within a year following a Europe-wide tender. The shipyard has already delivered dozens of almost identical vessels. The chairman of the Hamburg harbour pilots is enthusiastic about the boats, which cost around 3.2 million euros. The boats are completely well thought out, he says, even including heating for the deck and handrails for use in winter. On the fast boats, freezing spray would quickly form dangerous ice on the upper deck, on which the crew could slip and fall overboard, according to the first senior pilot.
"Hamburg Pilot 1" will close this year. Picture: HPA
Technology
The "Hamburg Pilot 3" is just under 18 metres long with a draught of only 1.5 metres. The two 405 kW (550 hp) diesel engines each give the ship a speed of around 20 knots, approximately 37 kilometres per hour.
The innovative bow shape with negative stem and delta frame (∆) enables so-called "wave piercing", so that the hull hardly bulges in rough seas and the ship does not pitch (reduced movement around the transverse axis). This significantly improves the comfort of the two-man crew and the pilots on board.
Negative stem with delta frame 'pierce' the waves. Photo: Baltic Workboats
Unlike the last five new additions to the fleet, the current boats deliberately do not have a battery-electric hybrid drive, as this is less suited to the very specialised travel profiles of the pilot transfer service. Instead, the new boats are intended to be converted to climate-neutral e-fuels in the near future. According to the information provided, the new ships will be equipped with the latest technology for exhaust gas aftertreatment in combination with the synthetic fuel GtL (gas-to-liquid). They will therefore be powered by normal marine diesel engines, which can be operated with the environmentally friendly synthetic fuel without further conversion. For explanations on alternative fuels (XtL) see here:
Vehicle fleet
According to the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Hamburg's municipal fleet currently comprises around 50 ships. The majority are inland waterway vessels for various functions, from fire-fighting and police vessels to sounding ships, pilot transfer vessels, transport ships and icebreakers. The fleet also includes dredgers, a barge suction station and barges.
kdk, NDR, HPA
English 
German
0 Kommentare