STENA RORO CONVERTS FERRY INTO
ACCOMMODATION VESSEL BASED IN MANILA
The conversion of the ferry Saga (formerly the Stena Saga) into an accommodation vessel has been completed over a two-month period in Piraeus, Greece and the vessel is now on its way to Manila in the Philippines. There she will be used for just over a year, among other things, for accommodations during the construction of Manila's new international airport.
The ship will be moored in the bay outside Manila where a new island for the new airport will be built by the Dutch company Royal Boskalis. The ship will be used for just over a year and about 1,000 people will be on aboard. In heavily populated Manila, living quarters and distances to the workplace are a problem and often entails long commutes. This makes an accommodation vessel moored at a nearby location a good solution.
“This project has come about through a commercial partnership with the Canadian company Bridgemans Services, specialists in the field of marine mobile residences for large industrial projects,” says Per Westling, Managing Director, Stena RoRo. “The combination of our knowhow and Bridgeman’s specific market knowledge is quite viable and we see opportunities for collaborating on various projects in the future. This collaboration opens the way for new business opportunities.”
“One of Stena RoRo’s specialist skills is converting and adapting ships to chang-ing requirements and needs. With the conversion of the Saga, we have broken new ground. For us, this is a new kind of project,” says John Kollander, General Manager, Stena RoRo, based in Shanghai and responsible for the commercial aspects of contract execution.
Conversion Manager Johan Kippel has been the project manager and responsible for the conversion team’s work in Piraeus, Greece. He describes the Saga’s new configuration after conversion:
“The previous four-bed cabins have been converted into two-bed cabins. The construction workers will work in shifts, enabling the ship to be used around the clock. There will be just over 530 cabins as well as wardrobes for private use. In addition to cabins for housing the workforce, there will be 99 desks in an open-plan office area, the space that was previously used for tax free shopping.
“The car deck has been converted into a logistics center. There is laundry and the ship will be self-sufficient with food and drinking water. In addition, there will be a restaurant and a bar. As a preventive measure, four cabins and a day room will be furnished to be able to serve as quarantine spaces if necessary.”
Mattias Kjellberg, Contract Manager, sees this as a pioneering contract and definitely a new business area for Stena RoRo. It also points to a promising future for some of Stena’s older night ferries, which might be phased out in the future.
“We have developed new technical and operational solutions that will make it easier for the 1,000 people who will have the Saga as their home and workplace,” says Niklas Andersson, General Manager, Technical and Commercial Operations. “As an example, we have built a steel structure in the stern as a platform to facilitate boarding, as well as the loading and unloading of goods.”
ABOUT THE FORMER PASSENGER FERRY STENA SAGA | The Saga previously served as a large car and passenger ferry and provided service on the Oslo - Fredrikshamn ferry route since 1994, which was shut down in the spring of 2020 due to the Corona virus. |
YEAR BUILT | 1981 (refurbished 1994, 2003, 2005, 2011) |
LENGTH | 167m |
TOTAL PASSENGER CABINS | 590 |
PASSENGER CAPACITY | Just over 2,000 |
CAR CAPACITY | 510 |