548 April 2009

Short-Sea Shipping a Fact on European Waterways

Photo courtesy of Cummins Marine

While there is much talk of short-sea shipping in North America, many would say that trucks still receive much more infrastructure support. However in Europe there is a greater acceptance and encouragement to use the inland waterways to move, not only bulk cargos, but shipping containers as well.

Recently the ‘de Roeck’ family took delivery of a 135 by 14.2-meter container vessel. With a depth of four meters and a telescoping wheel house the MS Isabelle is capable of handling five layers of containers. For visibility over the containers, the wheelhouse can extend to nine meters when the vessel is fully loaded.

Homeported in Brecht the hull of the Belgium-flagged vessel was built in the Russian Astrachan Plant and finished at the Veka Shipbuilding BV at Werkendam the Netherlands. Propulsion power is provided by a pair of EU Stage IIIa and EPA Tier 2 compliant Cummins QSK50-M engines each delivering 1600 hp at 1800 RPM. The vessel also has dual Cummins-powered 560 hp bow thrusters and a Cummins 4BT3.9-G4 powered genset.

Because of the family de Roeck’s good experience with Cummins engines in their other vessels, they decided to continue their cooperation with Cummins. The MS Isabelle will be used to transport containers through out the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France.

Additional photos and arrangement drawings are available by scrolling down at: www.scheepsinterieurbouw.nl/documents/54.html

For further information:

Sjoerd Spronck
Advertisement & Promotion
Scandinavia and Benelux
Cummins Holland B.V.
Olivijn 800
3316 KH Dordrecht
The Netherlands
Tel +31 78 6530 927
Fax +31 78 6176 579
E-mail: sjoerd.spronck@cummins.com
www.cummins.com
www.cummins.nl

575-551
550-526, 525-501, 500-476, 475-451, 450-426, 425-401, 400-376
375-351, 350-326, 325-301, 300-276, 275-251, 250-226, 225-201
200-176, 175-151, 150-126, 125-101, 100-76, 75-51, 50-26, 25-0