In January 2003, Gotlandsbolaget‘s first high-speed ro-pax ferry was delivered from the shipyard in Guangzhou, China. The ferry took over the traditional name Visby and, together with her sister Gotland, became something of a revolution in the traffic between Gotland and the Swedish mainland.
The return of Gotlandsbolaget
On 27 November 1996, the Swedish Parliament decided that the State would conclude an agreement based on the joint offer from Rederi AB Gotland and Silja Line AB to operate the Gotland services from 1 January 1998. The offer was based on the operation of two conventional ferries and a newly built single-hull steel high-speed vessel, which was scheduled to enter into service by spring 1999. For the first summer season, the conventional ferries were to be supplemented by a catamaran unless the newbuilding had already been delivered. Furthermore, the new contract required the vessels to be equipped with catalytic exhaust gas cleaning and to be capable of running on low-sulphur oil.
The State estimated its expenditure in the new agreement at SEK 174 million per year, and the agreement ran for four years, with the possibility of termination with a notice period of two years. This meant that six years of service were guaranteed from the start, but there was no time limit on the contract.
Gotlandsbolaget and Silja Line immediately began to implement their plans for the start of the service more than a year ahead. The conventional ferries Sally Star and Stena Felicity, already owned by Gotlandsbolaget, were released from their charter contracts and extensive refurbishments, including to meet environmental requirements but also new safety requirements as a result of the Estonia disaster, were procured from the German shipyard Lloyd-Werft in Bremerhaven.
In the tender, Gotlandsbolaget had also presented a development plan with the aim of creating a modern transport system that would meet the demands of passengers and the business community and create the conditions for increasing the population and jobs on Gotland. And this concept did not include conventional ferries, but a completely new generation of purpose-built high-speed ice-going vessels with large cargo capacity.
On 1 January 1998, Destination Gotland, a jointly owned company of Gotlandsbolaget and Silja Lines, took over the concession service between Visby and the mainland. The Sally Star and Stena Felicity had now been converted and renamed Thjelvar and Visby respectively, and during the first summer the catamaran Patricia Olivia was chartered in as a reinforcement. In January 1999, a French shipyard delivered the new high-speed vessel, which had a capacity of 700 passengers and 140 passenger cars. She was named Gotland and was the starting point for the new transport system that Gotlandsbolaget wanted to establish.
The design of the new concept of high-speed ro-pax ferries presented to the government by Gotlandsbolaget started in the spring of 1999 and was a product of the studies carried out by the shipping company to find what it called a long-term solution for Gotlandstrafiken. Gotlandsbolaget’s long-standing partner, the ship designers at Knud E. Hansen in Copenhagen, was engaged together with Horn Arkitekter MAA in Marstal to produce project drawings and other documentation.
Order goes to Chinese shipyard
During the first half of 1999, the project was negotiated with various shipyards in Europe and Asia with the aim of finding a shipyard that could meet the shipping company’s requirements in terms of delivery time and price. After several months of intensive negotiations with Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China, a contract was signed on 24 June 1999 for the construction of two vessels according to the specification presented by the shipowner. The aim of the contract was to have the vessels ready for delivery in 2002 with a lead time of about six months. Guangzhou Shipyard International was at that time a medium-sized shipyard in the Chinese shipbuilding industry with 8 500 employees and a production capacity of five to six ships per year.
The contract price per vessel was just over USD 55 million, which was a very good price for Gotlandsbolaget but also the largest contract value to date for GSI. Approximately one third of the contract price was for machinery and other technology associated with the propulsion systems.
The tight timeframe for producing the two vessels meant that the yard, together with Knud E. Hansen and Gotlandsbolaget, started the design work immediately after the contract was signed. The order was the first ever ro-pax project for Western clients in China and for the yard it was an important reference order for future European orders. In order to meet the specified standard and timeframe, the yard, at the request of Gotlandsbolaget, chose to work with several Scandinavian subcontractors: for example, Wärtsilä together with KaMeWa took responsibility for the entire engine and propulsion package, Callenberg Engineering for the entire electrical installation, and Danish Interior for the entire interior of the vessels.
Construction starts
Nine months after the order was placed, on 24 March 2000, the first plate was cut in one of the yard’s workshops. The ceremony was supervised by, among others, Sweden’s Ambassador to China Kjell Anneling and the shipyard’s Chairman Hu Guoliang.
On 8 November 2000, the first section, weighing fifty tonnes, was placed on the bed where the ships were to be built. As this was the first time that GSI had constructed such a large passenger vessel, some adjustments had to be made to the bed before construction could start. Among other things, the bed was extended into the river and a dock gate was added to accommodate the nearly 200-metre-long vessel.
GSI chose to install as much of the machinery and other equipment as possible at the sectional stage inside the workshops in order to achieve greater efficiency. Hull production was therefore initially relatively slow. By mid-January 2001, fifty percent of the hull had been produced in sections of about 100 tonnes each, but only five percent had been placed on the bed itself.
Engine room and cargo deck coming into place
At the end of March 2001, the coordination of the engine rooms was completed and the installation of all components started. Soon, decks one and two with their associated engine rooms were rapidly coming up on the bed, and in order to protect all the sensitive equipment already installed in the engine rooms, the aim was now to get deck three in place as quickly as possible.
Around this time, the trade magazine TradeWind reported that the yard had been forced to set aside more than SEK 350 million to cover the losses it was already seeing from the two new buildings. According to the newspaper, the yard’s miscalculation was due partly to a lack of experience and delays in deliveries, but also to heavy rain in the area, which had slowed down the work more than expected.
Once the labour-intensive engine room sections were in place in mid-May, production was much faster. All the steel sections were blasted and painted indoors, which meant that all the sections that came out to the bed were already primed and ready to be assembled.
In mid-May 2001, the ship’s two cargo decks, decks three and five, were installed, both designed for trailers with a clear height of 4.9 metres. Just a week later, in early June, the first vessel was completed up to deck seven and now the stern and aft ramps and the visor were installed. The vessel was fitted with an advanced ramp system from TTS, with a larger centred aft ramp leading to the main deck and two narrower side ramps up to the upper cargo deck. In total, the vessel was designed for a capacity of 1,800 lane metres of rolling cargo and the cargo box was also prepared for an additional deck, which could increase the passenger car capacity from 500 to 700 should the need arise in the future.
Launching and delivery
On the morning of 3 July 2001, the first vessel was launched and at the same time the second vessel was keelhauled. For the yard, this was a huge milestone. In its press release it wrote, among other things:
With the spirit of ”daring to do what the others have never done”, GSI resolutely took the contract to build high-tech Ro/Pax vessel, overcame the stringent difficulties and challenges, step by step, from hopeless to hopeful to reality, the vessel was seen launched successfully. To celebrate this significant event, GSI hold a ceremonious launching ceremony.
The delivery date for the first ship was now given as “in just over a year”, but it would turn out to be further ahead than that.
After a year and a half of continued fitting-out work, Mrs Marieann Nilsson was able to christen the ship Visby at a ceremony at the shipyard on 20 January 2003. A week later, Visby was ready for delivery from Guangzhou Shipyard International to Gotlandsbolaget, and the next day the record-long voyage home to Sweden and Gotland could begin.
The vessel’s seaworthiness was to be tested thoroughly during the voyage from China – a journey extended via the Godahopps Strait in South Africa due to the tense situation in Iraq and a perceived excessive risk of passing through the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal. The ship’s power resources were not a limitation; the propulsion machinery consisted of four Wärtsilä NSD engines of 12 600 kW each coupled in pairs to two propeller shafts. Wärtsilä had also supplied three auxiliary engines of 1 460 kW each. Two shaft generators of a combined 3 600 kW contributed to the power supply. At the bow were two powerful Rolls-Royce/Kamewa bow thrusters of 1 700 kW each. The vessel was also well prepared for rough seas with stabilisers to reduce rolling.
The first stop on the return journey was Singapore, which was left in the evening of 31 January after bunkering. On 20 February at 19:10 the ship arrived Tenerife for bunkering and she departed around 23:00 the following day. On the morning of 25 February, Visby arrived at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The reason for the unscheduled visit was that a leak in one of the fin stabilisers had occurred during the return voyage and was now to be repaired. Shortly before midnight on 27 February, the ship was docked for the onward voyage to Visby, which was reached the following day after about four weeks at sea. Many curious Gotlanders were waiting on the quay when the ferry arrived at 10 o’clock in the morning. Below an extract from Gotlandsbolaget’s press release:
There are three main lounges on board. The Forward Salon seats 550 people and is equipped with reclining chairs and TV monitors. The Aft Salon and Bistro Salon seat about 450 people, of which about 350 in reclining chairs. In the middle of the ship there is the Restaurant Square with about 500 seats. On the new ferries you can also choose a seat in the Cabin Compartment. To make the journey pleasant, there is a shop, restaurant square, bistro and playroom on board. The Restaurant Square has two serving lines with daily and seasonal offerings. The cash registers also serve the shop. In the forward saloon, the TV monitors show films and the playroom has video films for children.
Destination Gotland’s new vessel represents a new holistic approach to fast passenger ships. High safety requirements, efficiency and flexibility have guided the design and construction. Modern technology, such as catalytic exhaust gas cleaning, is used to reduce the environmental impact of the vessels as much as possible. Waste such as paper, plastic, glass and metal is sorted on board. The ships are equipped with MES (Marine Escape System), which includes life rafts, so that passengers can be evacuated directly from the passenger deck into large, covered life rafts.
The new large high-speed ferries will make the Gotland line one of the world’s most modern maritime transport systems.
The ship’s master Anders Nielsen and the chief engineer Anders Larsson, who brought Visby home with his crew, could be satisfied when Visby was now moored in Visby port. However, it was only a short visit to the island, and both would return to China just a few weeks later to oversee the completion of the second ferry.
The ferry was shown to the press the same day in Visby to a large press contingent by Gotland standards. One of the guides on board was Visby’s incoming captain Kjell Broander, who showed off the ship together with Anders Nielsen and Anders Larsson. The engineer explained that there were 480 kilometres of cable embedded in ducts, walls and ceilings and that it takes about 25 cubic metres of oil to make a trip between Visby and Nynäshamn. “This ship is built for high speeds and has a hull accordingly,” said Anders Larsson, who said the actual fuel consumption was not that much higher because the older Visby – now renamed Visborg – consumed about 20 cubic metres of oil for the same trip.
In Visby, with its limited port infrastructure, the Visby would be loaded and unloaded through the bow port and a side port on the port side. On the mainland side, however, Visby would be loaded and unloaded over the stern, which meant that four lanes could be used simultaneously. At the aft end of the upper deck of the Visby there was space for the transport of dangerous goods of the highest class, but dangerous goods were only transported on special trips with a limited number of passengers on board.
On 8 and 9 March 2003, Visby was presented in Stockholm to specially invited guests, and on 28 March the new building was finally put into service on Destination Gotland’s services between Visby and Oskarshamn/Nynäshamn.
Significant increase in capacity
When the two Chinese ferries were ordered in June 1999, Gotlandsbolaget had taken delivery of the smaller fast ferry Gotland, capable of 35 knots and seating 700 passengers, barely six months earlier. This was to be the starting point for the new transport system that was completed when Visby’s sister ship, which was to take over the name Gotland, was delivered in October 2003. The old conventional ferries and night services from the mainland to Visby were replaced by something completely new. The crossing time, which had previously been up to five hours – or even longer on the night tours – had now been reduced to just over three hours at the most. In addition, the high service speed of 28.5 knots for the large ferries and 35 knots for the smaller ferries meant that capacity increased significantly on both the Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn lines. Maximum capacity during peak season now meant six one-way trips per vessel per day, which meant that almost 24 000 passengers could be transported between the mainland and Sweden’s largest island every day.
However, Gotlandstrafiken did not yet have such extensive volumes, and Destination Gotland expected that, for the 2004 high season, the two large ferries would each make five single trips, while the smaller fast ferry would make four to six single trips per day.
However, not everything about the new “maritime transport system” was well received. The shipping company had announced in advance that the new large ferries would have a minimum safety crew of 28 people. The union and the employees argued that a minimum of 40 people were needed to deal with 1 500 passengers in an emergency. A union representative spoke out:
It’s not about our jobs, it’s about life and death for passengers and staff alike.
After evacuation drills and the Swedish Maritime Administration’s condition check, the authority decided on a safety crew of 33 people when the number of passengers is less than 1 000 and 38 people above that. This was a considerable reduction compared to the conventional ferries. In practice, however, the crews were larger at times of high occupancy due to service demands from passengers. The company expected that a full vessel would be served by a crew of 45-50 persons.
Few disruptions
The new ferries Visby and Gotland have – without exaggeration – meant a revolution for Gotland’s traffic.In 2002, the maximum capacity had already been reached with the existing fleet, reaching 1,370,000 passengers. In 2004, the first year with the two China ferries, the capacity reached 1,454,000 passengers and since then there has been a constant increase.In 2018, the capacity reached more than 1,766,000 passengers, 554,000 passenger vehicles and 850,000 lane metres of goods. And from 2019/20, a second generation of ferries from the GSI yard have formed the new backbone of Gotland’s traffic.
The Chinese ferries have proved to be very reliable during these years. Minor breakdowns have of course occurred, but even these have been few and far between. One incident that received considerable media attention occurred on 22 December 2004, when a stabiliser failed on the Oskarshamn-Visby voyage with 418 passengers, which, combined with the severe weather, caused the vessel to heel heavily. One person fell over and injured his head and, in addition, five cars and a minibus sustained sheet metal damage when a car with a trailer was moved sideways. The ship arrived in Visby about 20 minutes late.
However, since delivery, some problems with cavitation and impact on the ship’s rudder had been experienced. Already during a shipyard visit in Landskrona in January 2004, reinforcements of the rudders had to be carried out. Similar measures were taken on several occasions until January/February 2007, when the vessel’s rudders were simply replaced with an improved design.
The renaming that was paused
In 2019 and 2020, a new generation of ro-pax ferries was delivered for Gotlandstrafiken. They were initially named Visborg and Thjelvar because the China ferries from 2003 still bore the traditional names Visby and Gotland. In connection with the arrival of the second newbuilding in Sweden in early 2020, Gotlandsbolaget announced that it intended to change the names of the four large ro-pax ferries. The plan was for the newbuildings to take on the name Visby and Gotland, and for the older generation to be renamed Visborg and Drotten. When Thjelvar was to be put into service on Gotland in April 2020, the idea was that a ceremonial christening would take place in the home port. CEO Håkan Johansson stated that:
It is very gratifying to be able to christen the ship in its home port of Visby, together with the Gotland community whose development is so heavily dependent on our modern and efficient transport to continue to develop Gotland through lower climate impact. The opportunity to carry out a ship christening together with our proud employees within the Group is particularly gratifying.
However, a pandemic intervened and fundamentally changed the conditions for travel to and from Gotland in 2020. Thjelvar took over the name Gotland, and old Gotland was given the name Drotten – though without any ceremony. And the name switch between Visby and Visborg was further delayed.
One big ferry too many
In April 2014, Trafikverket announced that Destination Gotland had won the tender for the operation of Gotlandstrafiken from 2017 to 2027. Destination Gotland had based its bid on a service with three large ferries, and announced its intention to order a new vessel with modern and environmentally friendly technology with LNG as fuel if it won the contract. In addition to the two China ferries from 2003, a new vessel was to be added to the service. However, Gotlandsbolaget ordered two newbuildings and in the summer of 2019 it was decided that both newbuildings would enter the Gotland service. Thus, they now had one older ferry too many.
However, the surplus tonnage simplified planning for Destination Gotland when both Visborg and Thjelvar, later renamed Gotland, had to carry out their warranty overhauls at shipyards during the first year. In June 2020, however, Drotten (ex Gotland from 2003) was laid up in Stockholm Freeport, although she stepped in as a stand-in on a few occasions later in the summer.
In the wake of the Corona pandemic, however, it was no easy task for the Gotland company to find a market for its surplus vessels. It was therefore gratifying when Gotlandsbolaget was able to conclude an agreement in December with the Danish company DFDS to charter out m/s Visby from 20 December 2020. Destination Gotland was tasked with manning the deck and engine during the charter, which meant new jobs.
On Christmas Day 2020, Visby could depart Visby port for its journey down to France and Drotten had slightly earlier broken up in Stockholm to take over Visby’s trips in the Gotland traffic. On 2 January 2021, m/s Visby was put on the brand new DFDS route from Dunkirk in France and Rosslare in Ireland – a service resulting from the UK’s exit from the EU. The ferry was renamed to Visborg in Januari 2022.
The charter to DFDS has been extended on several occasions. On 21 February 2023, Visborg ended the service between France and Ireland and on 21 March the ship was put into service between Klaipeda and Karlshamn during the regular ferry shipyard overhaul. After a period of lay-up, Visborg arrived to Almeria on 15 May for a sub-charter to Balearia. On 24 September 2023, Visborg departed Almeria for Klaipeda after completing the charter to Balearia to be put back into service for DFDS between Klaipeda and Karlshamn.
At the beginning of January 2024, a new charter for Balearia began – this time for a period of 3.5 years.
Timeline
| 2003-01-27 | Delivered as Visby to Rederi AB Gotland, Visby |
| 2020-12-20 | Timecharter to DFDS, Copenhagen until May 2021. In Mars an option was exercised and the charter was extended until December 2021. Later on the charter was extended until December 2022. |
| 2022-01-26 | Renamed Visborg during maintenance work at the shipyard in Landskrona, Sweden. |
| 2024-01-06 | First trip for Balearia on her long term charter agreement (3,5 years). |
Specification
| Length | 196 m |
| Beam | 25,67 m |
| Gross tonnage | 29.746 |
| Deadweight | 5.248 |
| Machinery | 4 x Wärtsilä 12V46C, 50.400 kW, 28,5 knots. |
| Pax | 1.500 |
| Capacity | 500 passenger cars, or 1.800 lane meters |
| Call Sign/IMO | SGPH/9HA5499/9223784 |