The spectacular shipping of two car-ferries from Hamburg to Mombasa
Red, fat and bulky – two sisters are reclining at the Dradenau Terminal in Hamburg. Coming from Dresden they are awaiting the biggest trip of their life: “Likoni” tightened athwart and her sister-ship “Kwale”, which is already right alongside a blue and white multi purpose heavy lift project carrier, are on their way to Mombasa. Both ladies are designated to transport 1500 passengers or up to 65 cars several times a day. First of all, the two ferries will be loaded themselves: from the port basin directly under and onto the deck of the 166 metres long MV “Beluga Singapore”.
The loading of the brand new ferries will be a custom made masterpiece. The freight hold, in which “Kwale” is going to travel the 9000 nautical miles to Mombasa, measures just a few decimetres more than the cargo itself. Accurate to centimetre two on-board NMF-cranes of the “Beluga Singapore” will have to place the vessel precisely in its hold. Only after “Kwale” – fitting like one Russian Matryoshka into the other – is positioned in the hull of the vessel and protected against any movement, her identical twin “Likoni” will be lifted onto the deck of the multi purpose heavy lift project carrier. “Beluga Singapore” is one out of 69 vessels of the Beluga Shipping GmbH, which is specialized for innovative and tailored project and heavy lift shipments. She is the third of altogether 16 newly built vessels of the super modern P1/P2-series providing 800 to 1400 tons crane capacity in tandem usage, the Bremen based company will bring into service by 2011.
“Likoni” und “Kwale”, her prominent passengers to Kenya, are the first ferries at all built at the shipyard Schiffs- und Yachtwerft Dresden (SYWD). They are special orders placed from the state-owned Kenya Ferry Service Ltd in Mombasa at SYWD. The shipyard, which once built paddle-steamers for the river Elbe, planned and worked on the ferries for about two years. The Saxons were proud, the professional world was astonished, when finally on the yards lawn close to the “Blaues Wunder”, Dresden`s famous river-bridge, the two red ferries were ready for their long voyage to Kenya.
