Brand new heavy-lift vessel MV “Beluga Cape Town” equipped for voyages to all points of the compass
Cape Town is not only Africa’s southernmost metropolis but also the name of a brand new special vessel. The multipurpose heavy-lift project carrier unifies both, extraordinary performance and utmost efficiency. On January 24th, 2011 MV “Beluga Cape Town” set sail for her maiden voyage to transport oil and gas equipment from Mokpo, Masan and Pyeong Taek (Korea) to Skikda in Algeria. As from now she proudly highlights the famous city in ports all over the world and of course the Seven Seas.
Niels Stolberg, President and CEO of the German heavy-lift carrier Beluga Shipping , rather expresses strong confidence than “Good Hope” while looking at the future challenges of the latest member of the more than 70 members comprising fleet of the world market leader in the heavy-lift and project cargo segment. “Right from the start, South Africa has been our entrance to the continent. With an own affiliate already established years ago in Johannesburg, we decided to christen one of our new P-class vessels after another fine city of the country and, thus, to increase its visual presence on the oceans and the ports we are operating in” , he says.
The Beluga P-class is the next generation of a series of state-of-the-art multipurpose heavy-lift project carriers. The on-board cranes provide combined lifting capacities of up to 800 tons, some sister vessels of MV “Beluga Cape Town” even reach the 1400-tons mark. The ship designers created an especially efficient hull form which reduces the flow resistance to the level of much smaller ships. Her loading capacity amounts to almost 20,000 tons deadweight with box-shaped holds opening up more than 86 meters. The list of characteristics also includes adjustable tweendecks and a strengthened hull to pass through polar regions. Hence, MV “Beluga Cape Town” might possibly transit the Northern Sea Route, an endeavour which Beluga succeeded in to perform in 2009 as first commercial non-Russian shipping company ever.
*Photo: P1-800: MV »Beluga Singapore«; Beluga P1-Series; The same type of Heavy Lift Vessel as MV *Beluga Cape Town*
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Source:Beluga, February 4, 2011; Image: