Ro Vision awarded Ship of the Year 2020!

– The Live fish carrier fleet is continuously developing itself, and this year’s winner shows the belief in reducing the environmental footprint and increased security, says minister of fishery and seafood in Norway Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen.

Competing against two other nominees, the world’s first hybrid live fish carrier has been awarded Ship of the Year 2020. – The Live fish carrier fleet is continuously developing itself, and this year’s winner shows the belief in reducing the environmental footprint and increased security, says minister of fishery and seafood in Norway Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen.

-This year’s Ship of the Year is equipped as a hybrid and has fitted the most recent technology accessible for this type of ship, says the jury’s leader, editor of Skipsrevyen Gustav-Erik Blaalid. “Ro Vision” will be the template for the owner’s newbuilds. Later, it could be considered to refit the existing fleet in line with this template. That will increase the environmental gain, says Blaalid. Additionally, this award recognises the live fish carrier industry which has led the Norwegian ship technology and design becoming world-leading, says Blaalid.

The history of Ro Vision goes back to the pioneer Ro Arctic, the first live fish carrier in the LFC2020-design series. The project was supported by Innovasjon Norge and aimed to develop and design the next generation of live fish carriers. Working thoroughly with design and with good cooperation between owners Rostein AS and Naviera Orca SA, Skipskompetanse AS and Larsnes Mek Verksted AS, Ro Arctic was delivered and started operating in 2014. Following, Ro Server was built. She was an extended version of Ro Arctic, modified in line with experience drawn from Ro Arctic. During the year until 2018, Ro North, Ro West and Ro Fortune were all built using the same design as Ro Server.

In 2018, the project of Ro Vision was started, aiming to optimize the design even further, using experience from the previous vessels launched. The design was lengthened, and it was decided to install a battery pack of approximately 600 kWh.

In all the projects of the LFC2020 series, the close cooperation between owner, yard and designers have been the key to success. The owner involves in decision making and design using their knowledge on operating the vessels, while the yard includes experience in building to the design phase. This leads to a good design, focusing on easy maintenance and vessels operating the best way possible. That is why these live fish carriers are the best in the world.

Ship of the Year is the industry’s most prestigious award for Norwegian ship technology and innovation. The award is each year given to a Norwegian built vessel from a Norwegian yard. Skipsrevyen’s readers are nominating vessels to the award, while a qualified jury decides the winner. Skipsrevyen’s partners for Ship of the Year are NME (Norske Maritime Eksportører, NTNU (Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet), Norges Rederiforbund, Norsk Industri, Maritime Bergen, Norske Skipsverft og Maritimt Forum.

Skipskompetanse have built experience in environmentally friendly operation of vessels and have in recent years delivered design on a number of hybrid vessels. In 2019, Støttfjord and Trondskjær were delivered to owners with hybrid propulsion and in July 2020, Cape Arkona set off to Australia with a battery pack on board.

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