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Posted on January 27, 2022 at 8:56 a.m. by
The Maritime Executive
In the first quarter of 2022, MV Moorea and MV Messina, Universe Shipping’s two new inland tankers designed by RensenDriessen Shipbuilding, will enter service. Both vessels are equipped with a familiar system that has recently resurfaced: the RMS 2000 V Retractable Active Rotor Maneuvering System from Damen Marine Components. “This will allow us to navigate in a safer, more economical and more environmentally friendly way.”
After 27 years as captain of inland navigation, Marc Stok exchanged the wheelhouse in 2020 for the Universe Shipping office in Zwijndrecht, where he is fleet manager and co-responsible for the 17 tankers that fall under the shipping organization interior. And two more will soon be added: the Moorea and the Messina, 135 meters long and 11.45 meters wide.
Both tankers have a lightweight shallow water hull (type MoneyMaker 3.0) which was developed by RensenDriessen Shipbuilding. At the cutting edge of technology and in line with today’s requirements, when the low water levels of the Rhine require new solutions. But when Marc Stok started looking for ways to make new ships even safer and more environmentally friendly, he finally arrived at a product that has been around for decades: the Van der Velden® RMS Rotor Maneuvering System from Damen Marine Components (DMC).
Thanks to his own years of experience as a captain. “I knew about rotors back then, I had seen them on big ships,” he says. “That’s why I started to inquire again and it turned out that DMC, who we have collaborated with for a long time, still sell them.”
dormant existence
That’s right, says Leo van Zon, regional sales manager for Damen Marine Components in Hardinxveld-Giessendam. “Rotors were popular in inland waterways from around the late 1980s to the late 1990s, after which they sat idle for a long time. There are still captains using them and now rotors are suddenly reappearing because more and more ships are designed to sail in shallow water, if you have a shallow water ship design and the ship is in an empty state and a crosswind picks up, it becomes a kind of sailboat, so to speak. So you have to keep the ship’s heading stable, and you achieve that with the help of an active rotor system.”
DMC’s rotor maneuvering system is based on the principle of the Magnus effect. By placing a rapidly rotating cylinder in the approaching water, the resulting pressure difference creates a lifting force. This lift force, or lateral thrust, is greater than with conventional rotors and provides greater bow maneuverability.
Due to the increasingly important energy transition, this technique is used again today. Designations such as Flettner Rotor, Magnus Effect, and all sorts of other forms of using rotating poles on ships to aid in propulsion are widely used.
Safe and environmentally friendly
The RMS 2000 V-rotors (the designation V stands for Vertical) can be extended vertically and ensure that Universe Shipping’s new tankers can be safer, more economical and therefore also environmentally friendly, explains Marc Stok. “Safer, because it allows you to keep the ship more stable, especially when empty when the wind is blowing hard. This system is a good example of how you can still steer while sailing. An active rotor, but in the plus version small.And environmentally friendly, as the rotors save you fuel.With the rudder at the stern, less steering is needed, so you don’t slow down the propulsion of the vessel with every steering movement .You don’t have to worry about that with this system.”
Moorea and Messina are currently being completed at Dolderman in Dordrecht, after the hulls were built in China and Russia respectively. Both tankers will enter service in the first quarter of 2022. They will sail on the Rhine and will be equipped with twin propellers with two smaller propellers and four matching rudders, so they can still be used at water levels low. “Less rudder effect at low speed because the flow of the rudders is less, certainly in comparison with a larger propeller and an adapted 2-rudder system, when you still have to maintain the course of a ship of the same size. Hence the choice of Universe for the rotors,” says Leo van Zon.
Trust relationship
The majority of Universe Shipping’s inland tankers are also equipped with DMC’s Van der Velden® rudder and steering systems. It’s no coincidence, says Marc Stok. “Damen Marine Components is for us a reliable partner on which we can count. We are very satisfied with the collaboration. The lines are short and the contact is good, we can always contact them for comments and advice, they always answer to your question. This creates a very good bond of trust.”
Is such a long-term relationship important in inland navigation? “It’s very important to us. Such collaboration is simply a factor of stability, we know that we can always fall back on each other. And the products are top quality, that’s where it all starts, well In my 27 years as a captain, I have often worked with DMC rudder and steering gear, I have also worked with other systems, but I can’t think of any brand offering similar quality.
The products and services described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.
