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September 12, 2004

Norwegian Catamarans for French Coast

Norway’s Fjellstrand AS has announced a two boat order from the Department de la Vendee on the French west coast. The order includes a fixed delivery date of September 2005 for the first vessel with a second vessel option with planned delivery of October 2006. The two vessels are identical with a passenger capacity of 442 and an enclosed cargo area for up to 6 cars or 22 containers for baggage, light cargo and bicycles.

The fast cats are part of a major upgrade to the transportation between the Port Fromentine on the mainland and Port Joinville on Ile d’Yeu in the Bay of Biscay. This work includes extensive reconstruction of facilities in Port Fromentine. <www.compagnie-yeu-continent.fr/compagnie/news.asp>

The two vessels are being build to Fjellstrand’s FlyingCat™46 design <www.fjellstrand.as/>. The vessels will be built to the IMO HSC 2000, Category B, which is the highest existing safety standard for fast ferries. They will also be equipped with Fjellstrand’s own stabilization system. The FlyingCat 46 carries an 11.6-meter beam on an overall length of 45.5 meters.

Each vessel will be powered by four V-16 cylinder Cummins KTA50M2 engines each of which will deliver 1399 kW (1875 HP) rated Medium Continuos Duty at 1950 RPM. The engines will drive into four water jets to give the vessels a speed of 32 knots (60 km/h). The engines are classed B.V 1XHull, X MACH, HSC-Cat B Unrestricted Navigation AUT-UMS. This classification is valid for both mechanical and monitoring systems.

The value of the contract to build the boats is reported to be Euro 19.2 million (US $23.4 million). The decision to build the Fjellstrand vessels was reached only after extensive evaluation, both technical and cost, of bids received from suppliers in Europe, Singapore and Australia.

For further information:

Mikael Adler
Cummins Diesel Sales and Service AS
Sales & Marketing Manager
e-mail: mikael@cummins.no
Tel: +47 64907080
Fax: +47 64907090
Webpage: www.cummins.no

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