Austal Delivers Two Monohull Ferries to Turkey
Austal Ships has confirmed the delivery of two monohull ferries to Turkish operator Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri, Austal's first sale to the eastern Mediterranean region.
The Istanbul based company purchased the vessels from Austal to complement their ten catamaran passenger ferry operation currently in service between Istanbul and ports in the Marmara and Bosporus Sea.
After a very wide scale search for the right vessels, Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri (IDO) selected the monohulls from Austal Ships. According to Chris Pemberton, Austal's Manager of Marketing and Sales, IDO wanted to move quickly to meet increasing demand and Austal were able to provide the right type of vessel at very short notice.
"Our two companies have developed an excellent working relationship and Austal Ships is looking forward to developing further fast ferry concepts with IDO in the future," he said.
Valued at AUD$2 million each, "Aksemseddin" and "Ertugrul Gazi" have a capacity for 155 passengers with a fully laden service speed of 25 knots.
"Aksemseddin" will operate from Eminonu to Kadikoy, a distance of three nautical miles.
The main dimensions of the identical vessels are overall length of 30-metres, moulded beam of 7.05 metres, moulded depth of 2.8 metres and maximum draft of 1.1 metres.
The main propulsion system of each monohull consists or two MTU 8V 396 TE 74 diesel engines developing 832 kW at 1900 rpm driving KaMeWa FF Jet 550 waterjets through ZF BU255 marine gearboxes.
Passenger seating is arranged in a 2-5-2 configuration in fixed aircraft style chairs.Positioned at the forward end of the passenger saloon is the kiosk/galley. Adjacent to the kiosk, a stairway/hatch leads to the well equipped bridge. Access to the bridge deck can - also be gained via an aft stairway which additionally gives access to the engine room in the hull.
The vessels were surveyed to Det Norske Veritas classification. Safety equipment includes seven 25 man liferafts which are located either side of the superstructure plus lifejackets for all passengers and crew.
They have a tank capacity for 4000 litres of fuel and 400 litres of fresh water. Range at continuous speed is 200 nautical miles.
