Video: First Look at AAL’s Mega Heavy Lift Vessel Design
AAL Shipping has released a short film highlighting the design of its mega size 32,000dwt Super B-Class heavy lift vessels. The first, the AAL Limassol, is expected to be launched next year.
The Super B-Class design was a collaboration between AAL’s engineering and commercial teams and sister company, Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM). The vessels were designed to be the most efficient and competent multi-purpose vessels (MPVs) available, built on the engineering team’s expertise in handling heavy lift, breakbulk and dry bulk cargo.
Each 180-meter long Super B-Class vessel can safely accommodate over 42,000cbm of cargo on a single sailing. The significant clear weather deck space of 146 x 26 meters will feature a unique, retractable deck extension system, the AAL ECO-DECK, that can increase stowage space even further.
With the bridge and accommodation block positioned forward, crews will have unobscured sailing visibility and no physical restriction on cargo height. The vessels can also sail with open hatch covers, enabling extremely tall and over-dimensional units to be stowed safely in hold space.
The hull design will deliver a 6.5 meter minimum draft, allowing it to call at smaller and more remote ports.
Three heavy lift cranes positioned along the vessels’ port side will feature 350t lift each and combinable up to 700t max. Tandem lifting can be done with both cranes number 1 and 2, and also number 2 and 3. This enables cargo loading at both the fore and aft of the vessel – optimizing deck space and capacity. The cranes also feature an outreach of 35.7 meters at higher lifting capacity.
Under deck there will be two box-shaped cargo holds, one 68 x 25 meters, and the other 38 x 25 meters and with a height of 15.6 meters. They feature adjustable pontoon triple deck capabilities as required, to optimize cargo intake. With no center line bulkhead, the holds are designed to accommodate dry bulk commodities and optimized for stowage of dangerous IMO cargoes.
The vessels are dual-fuel and methanol ready and run on MAN main engines of 7,380kW – supported by two 1,700kW and one 1,065kW auxiliary diesel generators. They are NOx Tier III compatible with HPSCR, EEDI phase 3 compliancy, featuring a projected service speed of 14.5 knots.
Five of the Super B-Class will be named after major breakbulk ports: AAL Antwerp, AAL Hamburg, AAL Houston, AAL Dubai and AAL Dammam. The sixth vessel (and first of the new fleet to be launched in 2024) will bear the name AAL Limassol, in tribute to the town where AAL’s story first began in 1995.