News archive from 2017

On Saturday 21st  of October, Nb. 445 was successfully christened and launched at the Ferus Smit shipyard in Westerbroek, The Netherlands.

The christening ceremony was performed by Berit Berggren, Erik Thun AB. After the ceremony the launching went smoothly.

”Snow Crystal” is the first vessel in a series of two mini bulkers with ice class 1A and two cargo holds. The second vessel will follow in the beginning of next year as a full sister ship although she will be lengthened by 15.6 mtr. The vessels’ design is a further development of our existing vessels ”Alice” and ”Helge” and based on long experience of tailor making mini bulkers. They are planned to replace the ”Snow Star” and ”Ice Star”, that were built by the same yard about 20 years ago.

The new mini bulkers are characterized by their extremely high deadweight of 5.680/6.550 tons. The breadth is limited to 13.35 mtr, to be able to fit into the locks of the Trollhättan Canal, which will only be applicable for ”Snow Crystal”.

The propulsion installation consists of a 1.950 kW Wärtsilä main engine running on MDO fuel, and driving a nozzled CP propeller.

The 13^th–14^th September the Company Days was held in Lidköping. All officers on leave were invited to attend.

The topic of this year’s event was to enhance communication between office and vessels, inform about new rules and regulations and to socialize.

The first day started with an introduction of the company by Johan Källsson. Focus on the day was to introduce new regulations and applications that will be implemented onboard the vessels in the nearest future.

The following topics were included during day one: Ballast Water Management plan, KPI´s, fuel consumption/Off hire/Port State, QMS, MRV/SEEMP/Fuel report, Risk Assessment.

Day one ended with a great team building event followed by dinner.

The second day Martin Hernqvist from The Swedish Club was invited to host a half day of Maritime Resource Management, which was a highly appreciated seminar.

Finally, Johan Källsson and Henrik Källsson, both deputy managing directors of Erik Thun AB, presented the different parts of the group and plans for the future with the extensive new building program of 12 vessels, the first one to be delivered in November this year.

After good feedback it was decided to make the Company Days an annual event.