The Nassauborg has been loading beet pulp pellets at General Mills in Duluth (above) but this past winter, she was in Zhoushan (China) getting more footage added to her length. In the picture below, courtesy of Captain Menno van der Groen, both the Prinsenborg (foreground) and the Nassauborg, just behind the Prinsenborg, are in drydock for the upgrade. They went in at 468 feet long and came out over 570 feet long. According to the captain, the addition will add to their cargo space without increasing their draught, thus maintaining their ability to service shallow ports. The upgrade will not change the ship’s fuel consumption or speed.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
good day Mike ,
3rd crane on Prinsenborg was allready in shorter version of the vessel , however they did re-assemble crane nr 2 to be able to work on hold 2 & 3 without adding a extra crane . Ship did get one extra hold due to lengthening.
Regarding your 2nd question , i am not sure if i can give the correct answer as I am not into economics /chartering freights , but length is in the major european ports not an issue however Wagenborg's (i speak for my company) intensions are to serve customers as much as possible from door to door and therefore they also do send vessel's into the smaller ports in europe /asia in which length (due to lock for example) is an issue. Also 150 mtrs length is often used by ports as a limit for additional extra tugboats etc… so this could also be the reason.
Best regards
Captain Menno van der Groen -The Netherlands
Thanks to both the Capt. and you for the pics from the shipyard.
It looks like a third crane assembly was added as part of the lengthening.
There are a number of the other salties that visit regularly that could be candidates for similar conversions. Since I've been reading the schedules here for the last two years, I've been surprised at the number of them which are less than full length for the St. Lawrence system. Of course, with the economy, there may not be money for what vessel owners would prefer to have for greater efficiencies.
That brings up another question (last one for now!! ;>)) Do the BBCs, 'Borgs, etc service other ports where the shorter length IS the governing length? That could explain why the longer hull is not more common.