Atlanticoline of the Azores will employ the 3,934gt/2002 built Aqua Jewel and the 3,989gt/1995 built Mega Jet (built as Incat 035/Cat-Link I) 3rd May-29th September and 15th June-12th September respectively. The 748gt/2013 built Mestre Simao was badly damaged after a mechanical failure during stormy weather and her sister, the 748gt/2013 built Gilberto Mariano, is back in service following refit. The 287gt/1983 built catamaran Expresso Do Triangulo has been laid up for four years and may now be revived to deputise for the Mestre Simao.

CLdN’s second new Ro-Ro ship, the 74,273gt Delphine, arrived at Zeebrugge after her delivery voyage on 17th February. She is a sistership to the 7,800 lanemetre capacity Celine.

Deltamarin Ltd. has signed a contract with the Chinese Guangzhou Shipyard International Co. Ltd. (GSI) for consultancy and engineering services for the new DFDS Ro-Pax ferries. Deltamarin earlier carried out contract design of the ship concept for GSI in close co-operation with the owner.

Deltamarin will provide the yard with basic (approval) and detail design together with Safe Return to Port (SRtP) documentation. The contract covers all disciplines and all areas. The value of Deltamarin’s contract with GSI is about €5 million. The work will be carried out at Deltamarin’s offices in Finland and China with the assistance of network companies from Europe over an estimated period of 13 months. The shipbuilding contract for the two new DFDS Ro-Pax ferries was signed on 12th February between DFDS and GSI. Both ships are planned to be delivered in 2021 and will be built at GSI’s Nansha yard. The 230m long ships will offer capacity for 4,500 lane metres of freight and passenger vehicles as well as 600 passengers. The ships are planned to be deployed on one of the Baltic routes connecting Lithuania to either Sweden or Germany. They will be built to the newest environmental standard offering the lowest possible fuel consumption and emissions. They will also be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers and have ice class 1C.