Kiil got costlier engines for ferries

Photo: mfrbee.com

In maritime circles eyebrows are rising regarding details of new ferryboats being built - such as technically are the responsibility of port managers now under criminal suspicion.

Take, for instance, the ship building supervision. While with Vjatšeslav Leedo’s ships one supervisor was sufficient, the state intents to hire eight persons. The supervision is by Baltic Workboats of international calibre, a company building small vessels for the whole wide world.

In light of the recent news, a host of issues surface regarding how fast the supervision was secured. «When even the builder was not found yet, [Ain] Kaljurand (former Port of Tallinn CEO – edit) already attended a committee at the parliament stating that Baltic Workboats will be doing supervision, with no competition. It felt weird,» recalled a Riigikogu member.

The chief of said company, Margus Vanaselja, has been decorated by the President. Maritime circles are not too sure in the ability of the outwardly exemplary firm to perform the best supervision. As an example of that, they point to dozens of faults while the new Vormsi ferryboat built by the company was delivered – some bigger, some smaller.

The other aspect is the engines of the vessels. These were also ordered from Mr Vanaselja – MTU by Mercedes. These, says Mr Vanaselja, are the best engines in the world with servicing provided in Estonia in a company linked to himself.

Interestingly, the initial design prescribed Wärtsilä engines which sailors esteem better. Somehow, these got replaced by MTUs. When Wärtsilä was about to enquire where to send their price offer, Port of Tallinn deputy head Allan Kiil is said to have answered don’t bother: MTUs are cheaper anyhow.

Here, Mr Kiil was in the wrong of course. Out of ignorance or for some other reason, Postimees knows not. To purchase the MUTs may be cheaper by a couple of million, but with the ten year exploitation costs it will probably be dearer than the Wärtsilä ones.

Why? The MTUs are meant for warships – meaning they have readiness for rapid start from port. That equals high rotations which in turn spells 1.5 the fuel consumption of Mr Leedo’s current Wärtsilä-powered ferries, frequent replacement of parts etc.  

All told, that makes them costlier. That, by the way, was the reason Mr Leedo rejected the MTUs regarding his new ferries nine years ago, claims an authoritative and independent maritime expert in public service.  

Hearing this from Postimees, Mr Vanaselja naturally labels these arguments «child talk by Leedo». In reality, he says, the swift MTUs are much better for these lines that the medium geared Wärtsiläs. «Which are very good engines also, of course, but more for the large cruise ships,» says the entrepreneur.

Alas! Even here, even independent-from-Leedo Estonian  maritime experts fail to agree with Mr Vanaselja. And others, too. In the lobbies of the international maritime exhibition, Turkish shipyard representatives expressed amazement over the MTU choice, noting that regrettably the customer is king.