On 13 July 2020, “Beiyou 26”, the first luxurious 70m 1200pax aluminum ferry in domestic China, manufactured by Aulong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd (hereafter referred to as Aulong Shipbuilding) was successfully delivered. Honored delegates from multiple parties attended the delivery ceremony and witnessed the significant moment of the delivery and acceptance. Guests introduction -- Li Xiaofei, the CEO of Ennova Group Co., Ltd, Liu Dejun, the GM of Beihai Ennova Cruise, Du Yuanhong, the GM of the CCS Zhuhai Branch, Wang Haohan, the GM of the China Classification Society Industrial Guanzhou Branch, Chen Jianrong, the secretary general of the Guangdong Association Shipbuilding Industry, Yan Zhiqing, the Chairman of Aulong Shipbuilding, Wang Guangrong, the GM of Aulong Shipbuilding, etc.  

“Beiyou 26” is a customized luxurious high-speed aluminum catamaran specifically for Beihai Ennova Cruise, with the principal parameters of L.O.A. of 70.6m, molded beam of 17m, the maximum speed of 34kn and passenger capacity of 1200. This vessel has created many records listing as the largest principal dimension, the biggest passenger capacity, the maximum speed under the same pax vessel comparison, the highest wind resistance level, as well as the first aluminum vessel equipped with the leather massage seats and pet room in domestic China. “Beiyou 26” will be operated in the maritime tourism route of “Beihai—Weizhou Island” which is known as the “China Bali”.

The vessel is integrated with the advance shipbuilding process and core technology from both parent companies—Austal and Jianglong (stock code: 300589), showing in the reasonable interior layout, wild field of vision, elegant decoration design and humanized details. The whole construction process is monitored and controlled by the Austal’s quality management team. The vessel quality is fully benchmarked to the world leading level by featuring in the solid structure strength, optimized hull line, fast speed, strong wind and wave resistance, reliable safety and high passenger comfort.

Mr. Wang Guangrong, the GM of Aulong Shipbuilding, indicated that the design and construction of “Beiyou 26” brings extremely high requirements to the construction capability of the company, demanding a comprehensive consideration of the safety and aesthetic design, human engineering, seakeeping and passenger comfort as it is currently the largest aluminum ferry. Relying on the strong strength of the parent company—Austal in the field of large aluminum vessel construction, bottlenecks of hull line and structural strength in terms of the domestic large aluminum vessel have been tickled by adopting plenty of advanced technology including CFD, FEA, seakeeping analysis, structural fatigue strength analysis, aluminum testing and analysis, etc.. Thereby, the construction task of the vessel was completed with excellence, ensuring the scientific and advanced nature of the vessel.

Mr. Shen Hui, the technical director of Aulong Shipbuilding, noted that the hull line of “Beiyou 26” is employed with high molded depth design with reference to Austal experience of the leading large vessel design, which is benefit to avoid the harmful wave slamming to the vessel. Therefore, the vessel still could be under normal operation in the adverse sea condition of Beaufort wind of grade 7 and wave height of 3m. Owing to small range of vessel motion and low possibility of water spray, the potential damage to important machinery and equipment on board and the stress response of hull structure are reduced. Therefore, the full service life of the vessel is more reliable. Compared with similar domestic passenger vessel, “Beiyou 26” is optimized in hull line, speed and vibration noise. Especially, the reduction of wave resistance is 8% better than that of similar vessel, which can greatly improve the fuel economy and navigation speed.

With the rapid development of the maritime tourism in recent years, higher demands have been put forward for tourism shipping vessels in terms of overall transport capacity, safety performance, interior layout and leisure and entertainment functions. The successful delivery of “Beiyou 26”, the domestic first 1200pax large luxurious aluminum high-speed ferry, is not only an important manifestation of the great progress in domestic large vessels construction capability, but also boost the vigorous development and upgrading of China maritime tourism.