Cruise industry recognizes Ecospeed benefits

The decision to use Ecospeed was quickly made by the new owners of the cruise vessel m/v Astoria after they saw the excellent condition of Ecospeed on the underwater hull of another cruise vessel. The ship came into drydock after sailing with the coating for three years and needed only a few small touch ups.

Consequently the application of Ecospeed on m/v Astoria was scheduled during the long winter months at the reactivated Swansea dry docks in Wales, UK. Following a comprehensive refit, the vessel was renamed Saga Pearl II and has been in service since March 2010.

As Ecospeed requires only two layers and has an extended overcoat time, the application schedule could easily be adapted to the unpredictable weather conditions and this to the great advantage of both the shipyard and ship owner. Already in this early stage, Ecospeed has lived up to their expectations.

Because Ecospeed is 100% non-toxic and promotes environmentally safe maintenance, the owner’s choice of Ecospeed offers significant value to the company’s corporate responsibility towards cleaner seas and environmentally safe ship hull husbandry. Ecospeed is considered a once-in-a-lifetime coating because experience has shown that there is no need to repaint the vessel during future drydockings, which leads to a considerable reduction in emissions. Ecospeed also maintains its smoothness throughout its entire lifetime and allows the owner to always operate his vessel in excellent condition. This results in reduced fuel consumption and an even greater reduction of the carbon footprint.

Ecospeed makes further maintenance of the underwater hull very easy, whether in-water or dry. This is achieved by Ecospeed’s non-stick properties that make it difficult for fouling organisms to attach themselves to the hull. Maintenance procedures can be repeated whenever needed during the vessel’s lifespan without causing damage or deterioration in the quality of the coating’s surface and even significantly improving the coating’s surface characteristics on each occasion. When using conventional paints, a vessel’s AHR (average hull roughness) will gradually increase as a result of the buildup of paint layers and the general deterioration of the paint system, causing increased fuel consumption. Whereas these alternative coating schemes such as anti-fouling or silicone paints deteriorate substantially during the vessel’s docking periods and the maintenance of them is limited to dockings only, the long lasting Ecospeed coating offers long-term fuel efficiency.