SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

When you
don’t know.
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S-separator
fleet news
Editor: Pär-Henrik Sjöström ~ E-mail: par-henrik@shipgaz.com
The Finnjet to be
It seems like the long career of the car and passenger ferry Finnjet
finally would be coming to an end. It is reported that the ship
has been sold to be broken up in India.
Renamed Da Vinci, the ferry is now at Genoa. According
to Equasis, before the last change of ownership the vessel was
owned by the Bahamas-registered company Cruise Ship Holdings
Six and managed by Club Cruise Entertainment in the
Netherlands. The intention of that owner was apparently to
rebuild her into a cruise vessel.
However, aged 31, this famous ferry is already quite old and a
refit into a cruise vessel would no doubt have turned out to be
very costly. It might also be questioned whether a conversion at
all would have turned out to be successful. After all, the Finnjet
is a very special vessel, with a hull designed for high speed.
One of a kind
There is indeed no other vessel in the world like the Finnjet.
When she was delivered by Wärtsilä Helsinki shipyard in 1977
for Finnlines’ service between Helsinki and Travemünde she
was by far the fastest ferry in the world. The main idea was to
replace two older ferries with this new one. Powered by two Pratt
& Whitney gas turbines with an output of totally 75,000 BHP,
the 212.81 metres long vessel could maintain a service speed of
30 knots.
But the world was not yet quite ready for large fast ferries.
The fuel economy of the gas turbine machinery soon turned out
to be disastrous and already in 1981 additional diesel-electric
propulsion was fitted for slower crossings during off season. In
1986 the vessel was acquired by Effoa – Finland Steamship Co.
Ltd. and Silja Line took over manning and operations. She then
sailed in Silja Line’s colours from 1987 until she left the Baltic
Sea for good in 2005. In 1997 the year-round service between
End of an era as the last Shell
The sale of the product tanker Magn from Shell Føroyar P/F marks
the end of an era, as the tanker seems to be the last one trading for
an oil major under own flag. Over the last couple of decades the
oil majors have sold off their own tonnage and instead taken up
chartered ships for their distribution of liquid products.
Bought in 1996
The Magn was purchased by Shell Føroyar P/F as late as July
1996 after a long process lasting nearly eight years from the first
visit on board the German tanker Hornisse to the final signature
on the dotted line. Under the Faroese flag, the Magn has been
used for import of petroleum products, mainly from the Norwegian
storage facility on Sola and from the refinery at Mongstad
to Faroese ports.
The tanker, built in 1983, has now fallen for the 25-year limit
SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 16, 2008