The plate-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday at the Castellammare di Stabia (Naples) shipyard for the latest generation ferry that Fincantieri is building for Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ), a Canadian company that operates in maritime passenger transport.
The ferry, which is scheduled for delivery in Canada in late 2014, will be a concentration of technology and innovation, adopting the most advanced solutions in terms of energy saving and low environmental impact.
It will be equipped with a diesel electric propulsion system, like on modern cruise ships. The four diesel power generators will be dual fuel and can run on either gas (Liquid Natural Gas – LNG) or marine diesel oil. Two electric propulsion engines will operate azimuth thrusters, each equipped with two counter-rotating propellers, which together with transverse propellers, will give the ferry exceptional maneuverability. These characteristics, combined with a complex and extensive system of ramps and doors at both bow and aft, will allow the vessel to load and unload very quickly.
The ship will be certified in the highest class designated by international registries for this type of service and will also be in Ice class 1 A and propulsion class 1 AS, the highest level awarded by the classification registries.
The ferry will be used in the Québec province for multiple services on the Matane-Baie-Comeau-Godbout route, which allows more than 205,000 passengers and over 118,000 vehicles to travel with 1,600 sailings a year.
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