Original news was published on 11 June, 2014

RollDock Shipping today (June 11) took delivery of RollDock Storm, a semi-submersible heavy-lift ro-ro vessel, built by Flensburger-Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Germany. RollDock Storm is the fourth in a series of vessels, following RollDock Sun, RollDock Sea and RollDock Star.

Each vessel in the series is equipped with two 350-ton-capacity Liebherr heavy-lift cranes and a heavy duty ro-ro ramp with a weight capacity of up to 4,000 tons, which can be positioned at various levels in relation to the quay, RollDock Shipping said in a statement. They also have the ability to submerge to load cargoes such as dredgers, submarines and various naval craft.

The vessels’ dock holds are box shaped and measure 119.44 meters long and 19.4 meters wide. With a maximum shallow draft of only 5.67 meters fully loaded coupled with exceptional manoeuvrability, the RollDock Storm and its sister vessels are able to call remote ports with little water depth to load or discharge cargo. Sailing speed is about 17 knots.

In related news, RollDock and its joint venture partner BigLift that formed BigRoll, will expand its fleet as well. BigRoll Barentsz and BigRoll Bering are scheduled to be delivered in 2015. These vessels have been designed to deliver large and heavy modules and can access remote Arctic locations due to their Finnish Swedish 1A Ice Class approval.  BigRoll also holds an option on two more sister vessels.

Photo: Inside RollDock’s new RollDock Storm semi-submersible vessel. Courtesy of RollDock Shipping.

*NEWS SOURCE