Zero-emission vessels developer SWITCH Maritime has announced it has secured a Design Basis Agreement (DBA) with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for a 150-passenger hydrogen fuel cell-electric ferry set to start operations in New York.  Designed by global naval architecture firm Incat Crowther, the SWITCH-150 is powered by an integrated hydrogen fuel cell-electric propulsion and hydrogen storage system that Wyoming-headquartered SWITCH says enables the vessel to perform ‘high-frequency, high-intensity’ ferry operations like an existing diesel vessel. ‘This means parallel service speeds, a daily bunkering schedule, and no need to increase dwell time or alter service to account for vessel […]

BIMCO says that its Energy Saving Device Retrofit Addendum will provide a new contractual framework that can ‘facilitate the installation of energy saving devices during the period of a time charter’. In a statement posted on its website today (21 October), the shipping association said that the Addendum will ‘provide owners and charterers with a flexible mechanism for agreeing how the costs, time, fuel-saving benefits and environmental benefits associated with retrofit projects should be allocated between them’. BIMCO said that the Addendum – which has been ‘deliberately drafted as a technology-neutral framework capable of accommodating a broad range of current […]

Wilhelmsen Ship Management has welcomed the latest methanol dual-fuel Shaper Class pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) to its managed fleet. The Royal Tern follows the delivery of the Arctic Tern that was completed in July. In addition to its methanol dual-fuel propulsion, the Royal Tern features a range of technologies designed to support energy efficiency and environmental performance, including an air lubrication system, energy storage battery system and AMP shore power connection. ‘We wish Royal Tern and her crew fair winds and following seas,’ Wilhelmsen Ship Management said in a social media post today (19 October). As previously reported by […]