Patricia Ruf, Member of the administrative board at Liebherr-International AG, has formally christened SAL's MV Patricia at the Liebherr site in Rostock. The vessel is the third delivered unit in SAL's Orca Class newbuilding program and bears the name of her godmother. The ceremony brought together more than 350 guests invited by SAL, including customers, partners and suppliers, alongside representatives of the Harren Group and Liebherr, members of the project teams and the vessel's officers and crew.
The christening continues a relationship between SAL and Liebherr that extends back more than 30 years. During the development of the Orca Class, SAL contributed its experience in project shipping, while Liebherr worked with the vessel designers on the integration of the cranes, their electrical architecture and control functions.
Designed for demanding project cargo
SAL developed the Orca Class around the requirements of heavy-lift, offshore, renewable-energy and industrial transport. MV Patricia's multipurpose configuration allows lifting, stowage and voyage plans to be adapted to individual cargoes, from single heavy components to multi-port project shipments.
Two all-electric Liebherr LS 800 E ship cranes form the vessel's principal cargo-handling system. Each crane offers a maximum lifting capacity of 800 tonnes. Working together, they can handle loads of up to 1,600 tonnes in tandem operation.
The cranes communicate with the vessel's power-management system, allowing their energy demand to be coordinated with other onboard consumers. Energy recovered during crane movements can be returned to the ship's electrical network, stored and reused when demand rises. This architecture is intended to improve the use of available onboard power and reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions during cargo-handling cycles.
Liebherr's Litronic control system supports precise load movements, while the electrical drives and protected arrangement of key components are configured for maritime operation. Liebherr's service teams will provide technical support, maintenance planning, diagnostics and spare-parts coordination along the vessel's trading routes.
MV Patricia will leave Rostock carrying two further examples of Liebherr maritime technology. An LHM 800 mobile harbor crane is destined for Luanda, Angola, while an LPS 550 portal crane will be delivered to Casablanca, Morocco.
