Finnlines’ new freight-passenger vessel Finnsirius, which entered services between mainland Finland, Åland and Sweden in mid-September 2023, has been chosen as the winner of this year’s Shippax Ro-Pax award.
The award stated:
“As the prototype ship of Finnlines’ new Superstar-Class Ro-Pax vessels, Finnsirius successfully combines size, innovation, environmental responsibility, and passenger comfort. Her modern hybrid drive system with 5 MWh of energy storage helps to reduce fuel consumption and, along with her shore connection, allows for quiet and emission-free port stays, while the enormous capacity of 5,200 lanemetres ensures a highly efficient and thus climate-friendly transport of all kinds of cargo. Many details, such as an air lubrication system, contribute to turn Finnsirius into one of the ‘greenest’ Ro-Pax vessels existing. At the same time, she offers superior passenger accommodation and a thrilling choice of public spaces rarely seen on cargo-focused Ro-Pax vessels so far. Moreover, the crew quarters are noteworthy: Generous in size and complete with gym and sauna, they turn Finnsirius into a truly attractive workplace at sea.
This year’s Shippax Ferry Conference was held onboard Tallink’s Baltic Queen on 13-15 May 2024. Deltamarin’s Johan Hellman (Sales Manager, Passenger Ships) and Mia Elg (R&D Manager) were present at the conference, with Johan also receiving the award on behalf of Deltamarin together with Zheng Hehui (China Merchants Jinling Shipyard), Tom Pippingsköld (Finnlines), Samuli Hintikka (dSign Vertti Kivi) and Finn Wollesen (Knud E. Hansen) .
Deltamarin started the project in 2019 on basis of Knud E. Hansen’s tender design material and prepared the full contract design package commissioned by Jinling Weihai shipyard.
The project was a natural continuation of Deltamarin’s cooperation with the China Merchants Jingling Shipyard (Weihai), based on the successful and solid collaboration established with the Stena E-Flexer series vessels.
During the contract design phase, the concept of the vessel was significantly modified from the original design. The approval design phase of the project started under abnormal situation in spring 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still restricting global travel.
Both design teams of Deltamarin —i.e. concept and approval—were a great combination of Stena E-flexer veterans, who knew the shipyard well, and young talents with fresh ideas. The overall execution of the project aligned with our strategic target: to serve our clients throughout the different design phases.
Both vessels (Finnsirius and Finncanopus) were delivered during the second half of 2023. Finnlines and Grimaldi have been very satisfied with the vessels as well as the work done by Deltamarin.