'Futura Carrier' Gets 146 Tons of New Steel

After a stay of around eight weeks at the shipyard, the "Kaja Josephine" left the Strela Shiprepair Yard on July 11, 2024, the first inland vessel to be docked and maintained there since the Stralsund repair yard was founded two years ago. The Futura Carrier, built in 2007, belongs to the fleet of the Schramm Group based in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein). One of the special features of this type of ship are the four pod drives  that can be rotated through 360°. They are mounted in pairs fore and aft and give the 97.5- x 13.6-m wide inland waterway vessel great maneuverability. The vessel is used on the shipping route between Brunsbüttel and Hamburg, transporting copper ore for a metallurgy company based on the Elbe.

"The docking of the first inland vessel is a milestone for Strela Shiprepair and also shows that the Stralsund site is also easily accessible for inland vessels," said Andreas Höhle, Project Manager at Strela Shiprepair Yard. On the Kaja Josephine, the shipyard workers were faced with the ambitious task of completely renewing the area floor within a short space of time. The constant transport of copper ore had led to a high level of wear in recent years. The entire 818-sq.-m. cargo area floor was removed and then replaced with 20-mm thick steel plates. A total of 146 tons of steel were used. The bulkheads and longitudinal walls of the hold were also reinforced. The ship also received six additional ballast water pumps. These enable the ship to be trimmed more quickly during loading and unloading.

In the first half of 2024, a total of 24 vessels were docked at Strela Shiprepair Yard, including coasters, workboats, offshore vessels as well as specialised and passenger ships.