Since August 2014, Wärtsilä has been engaged in initial ship design for the project Midway Alignment of the Bothnian Corridor. The concept, outcome of the the first phase of the ship design process, the so-called Initial Design, has now been published. It covers the main features of the future vessel as well as the space allocation for all the functions that the ferry will be equipped with. Starting from this concept, the work will now focus on ship design in more detail, in a phase called Basic Design. The following phase will cover the competitive bidding for ship-building, and the final design will be carried out together with the shipyard which submits the winning tender.

Mr. Tuomas Linna, project manager at Wärtsilä, leads the design team of the ferry intended for traffic across the Kvarken Strait. According to Mr. Linna, the starting point for ship design is a vessel, a unit, that functions independently, without the support of any surrounding infrastructure.

The design of the vessel for the Kvarken route is, in many ways, more demanding than that of an average ship, because the Kvarken ship will be the only one in regular traffic between Vaasa in Finland and Umeå in Sweden and it will have to serve as a passenger ship, ferry and cargo ship, all in one. It must serve tourists, truck drivers, conference participants, families and children as well as people who are travelling in business. The ship will have a car deck along the entire length of the vessel, an open afterdeck and space for large goods as well as sun deck, restaurants, conference rooms and cabins for passengers.

Read more on midwayalignment.eu