Freire begins the Works of the largest School Ship built at the Ria
The Vigo shipyard Freire (Construcciones Navales Paulino Freire) will begin the sheet metal cutting next Monday. This boat will be the largest ship ever built in the Ría, with 110 meters in length and capacity to accomodate 200 people on board
The ship, commissioned by the Ministry of Defense of Indonesia for the training of cadets from the National Army, ensures two years of activity for an average of 300 employees (including both staff from the factory itself and the auxiliary industry of the region) and represents a challenge for the sails which will deploy: 3,350 square meters on a sailing barque rig. The Vigo shipyard will also instruct to Indonesian officials in the use of the ship throughout the construction process.
The legal start of the contract took place last July, but the award in an international contest dates back to June 2013. Freire had submitted the most competitive offer of the ones presented in the international tender at the Indonesian Ministry of Defense, with a 70 million budget (65 million euros at current exchange rates). Apart from the Vigo shipyard, there were Asturian company Gondán, the Polish Bumar SP ZOO and the Dutch Icon Yachts and Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, as FARO newspaper announced in advance in November 2012. Freire and Bumar reached the final of the competition ; the latter with a sailboat draft of 78 meters in length and a budget of $ 64.7 million.
The ship from Freire, designed by the Spanish company Oliver Design, will replace the KRI Dewaruci (58 meters long, and already decommissioned) and will have 110 meters long by 12 m wide and 6m draft. The ship, with a Bricbarca type rig(three masts, Brigantin style), will have 3,350 square meters of sail and will provide a training naval platform with capacity to accommodate 200 people on board, of which 120 will be cadets in training. The contract ensures 346,000 hours of work to the naval factory for a period of 22 to 24 months, employing an average of 300 people, and strengthens the backlog of Freire.
In the manufacturing process, it has a freezer trawler for Norway, Holmøy, 69 meters long by 17 wide (worth about 30 million euros), and a modern 95 meters oceanographic for the Peruvian War Navy. This latest contract, signed late last year and budgeted at about 73 million, has placed Freire as an international benchmark for the construction of marine research vessels . A larger, not yet in force (?), shipyard chaired by Jesus Freire has awarded another research vessel of reinforced hull for India, 130 meters long, and a research ship smaller (54.8 meters) for Kuwait. The firm also won a competition to build a polar research ship 130 meters long for India, for the National Center for Oceanic and Antarctic Research (GOA) .
(Source: Faro de Vigo)