03 Oct 13 - 10:47
Named Francisco by Argentina’s President
The World's Fastest Ship, was christened by in Buenos Aires the President of Argentina, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. The 99 metre vessel, which was named Francisco in honour of the Argentine born Pope, is the first large dual fuel high speed Ro-Ro to use LNG as its primary fuel.
The ship, Francisco, built in Hobart by Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd and delivered recently to South American company Buquebus,commences service on the River Plate (Rio Plato) between Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Francisco has capacity for 1,000 persons and 150 cars. Australian ferry builder Incat Tasmania's world first high speed dual-fuel vehicle and passenger ferry is according to Incat, the world's fastest ship having achieved a lightship speed of 58.1 knots - (107.6 kilometres an hour).
Moreover, according to Incat there's a few speed boats that could surpass 58 knots but not carrying 1000 passengers and 150 cars, and a large duty free shop on board.
The vessel's high speed can be attributed to the combination of Incat wave piercing catamaran design, the use of lightweight, strong marine grade aluminium, and the power produced by the two 22MW GE LM2500 gas turbines driving Wartsila LJX 1720 SR waterjets.
Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, currently in Europe, said "Incat is delighted with the efficiency of the design and sure that our customer, Buquebus, are thrilled with the results, enabling the ferry to compete with airline traffic on the River Plate route."
Buquebus has clearly demonstrated their preference for Incat technology over a twenty year period and Francisco (hull 069) is the eighth Incat vessel to be operated by Buquebus and their associated companies. It is the largest catamaran they have operated, the world's first dual fuel high speed ferry to operate on LNG as its primary fuel, and the fastest, environmentally cleanest, most efficient, high speed ferry in the world.
World's fastest ship, named Fransisco in Argentina
(Image Credit: Incat)
Incat's High Speed Record
The fastest previous vessel built by Incat was Juan Patricio, delivered also to Buquebus, with a top speed at 53.8 knots. Juan Patricio was delivered in 1996 and remains in commercial service.
Francisco is the fourth Incat built vessel with service speed over 50 knots.
The past three consecutive winners of the Hales Trophy, the Transatlantic Blue Riband record for commercial passenger ships, were built by Incat. The average speed over the 3 day (unrefueled) voyage of Incat hull 049 was 41.284 knots.
Incat has built 25 High Speed Craft over 5000 gross tonnes with a top speed in excess of 45 knots.
Read more about world's fastest ship Francisco in Safety4Sea articles
