Ships of the Year

SAkARI SAARI
The Baltic Princess is an identical sister to the Galaxy, but the vessel is painted in a more conventional way.
The latest cruise ferry
on the Gulf of Finland
Last summer the Estonian ferry
company Tallink Grupp AS took
delivery of the fourth cruise ferry
from Aker Yards, which recently has
changed its name to STX Europe.
Named Baltic Princess, the EUR 165 million
cruise ferry is an identical sister to the
Galaxy from 2006, while the first two vessels
in the series, the Romantika and the
Victoria I, are slightly smaller. One vessel
of this type remains to be delivered, the
Baltic Queen, which will be completed
by STX Europe Rauma shipyard in spring
2009.
While the other vessels of this series are
built by the Rauma shipyard, the Baltic
Princess was delivered by the Helsinki shipyard.
She was handed over to the owner on
July 10, 2008 and entered Tallink’s service
between Helsinki and Tallinn five days later.
She replaced her elder sister the Galaxy,
which was transferred to the Turku–Åland–
Stockholm route, that is operated under
the Silja Line brand.
The Baltic Princess has capacity for 2,800
passengers and there is a total of 2,500 beds
in the 927 passenger cabins. On the car deck
there is capacity for 1,130 lane metres of
cargo vehicles or up to 420 private cars. The
cargo handling equipment is manufactured
by TTS Ships Equipment AB.
Identical twins
With a few minor exceptions the deck
arrangements on the Baltic Princess are
identical to the lay out of the Galaxy. On
board there are several restaurants and
places for entertainment of various styles
as well as a conference centre with over
450 seats. The public areas are mainly situated
on deck 6 and deck 7, while the bulk
of the passenger cabins are located to deck
5, 8, 9 and 10.
The propulsion machinery includes four
Wärtsilä 16V32 main engines, providing
a service speed of 24.5 knots. The main
engines have an output of 8,200 kW each
at 850 rpm and are equipped with catalytic
exhaust gas cleaning. The vessel has two
propellers and two bow thrusters of 1,800
kW each. The Baltic Princess is built to
BALTIc PrIncESS
SHIPS OF THE YEAR
Type: Cruise ferry
Built by Aker Yards, Helsinki, Finland, for
AS Tallink Grupp, Tallinn, Estonia. Delivered
July 10, 2008. Newbuilding no 1361. IMO
no 9354284. Estonian flag.
class: Bureau Veritas C + Hull, RoRo
Passenger Ship, Unrestricted navigation,
+MACH, AUT UMS, SYSNEQ1
Ice class 1A Super.
L o a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.1 m
L b p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194.4 m
Beam, mld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.0 m
Depth, deck 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.7 m
Depth, deck 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.2 m
Draught, scantling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 m
Gross tonnage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,900
DWT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,800
Passengers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,800
Cabins/beds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927/2,500
Crew cabins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Cargo capacity, lane m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,130
Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Machinery: Diesel-mechanical, 4 x Wärtsilä
16V32 (4 x 8,200 kW at 750 rpm)
Service speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.5 knots
Bureau Veritas class and the highest Finnish/Swedish
ice class 1A Super.
pär-henrik sjöström
SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • DECEMBER 19, 2008 27