RoPax13

50 / NEWBUILDING
Clockwise: View from starboard monkey island // Deck 9 aft reception lobby // One of the de-luxe corner suites on Deck 10
all images of this article: Philippe Holthof
With the introduction of the 70,016gt
“Moby Fantasy” and “Moby Legacy” –
the biggest ever ro-pax ferries to operate
in the Med – Moby has further increased
competition on the Livorno-Olbia artery,
offering freight capacity and passenger
amenities that are second to none on this
mainland Italy-Sardinia corridor.
The Livorno-Olbia route is the main freight
gateway to Sardinia as Moby competes
head-to-head with Grimaldi Lines that introduced
the 3,060-lanemetre and 413-passenger
cabin “Cruise Europa” and “Cruise
Sardegna” (ex-“Cruise Olympia”) ahead of
Moby’s June 2023 introduction of “Moby
Fantasy”, followed by sister ship “Moby
Legacy” in February this year. Completed
by China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International
(GSI), the 3,853-lanemetre and
2,370-passenger capacity pair is a
modernised and upgraded evolution of
“Moby Wonder” and “Moby Aki”, the
mainstays on the Livorno-Olbia route for
The bridge on Deck 11
many years. “Moby Wonder” and sister
ship “Moby Freedom”, sold to Eckerö Line
in 2012, had an as-built capacity of 1,965
lanemetres and 1,880 passengers. Completed
by the then Daewoo Heavy Industries
(currently known as Hanwha Ocean)
in 2001, they were four years later joined
by a third ship in the series, the
Fincantieri-built “Moby Aki”. When still
working at KNUD E. HANSEN (KEH),
Anders Ørgård was instrumental in the
ship’s design, the concept of which was
essentially the brainchild of shipowner
Vincenzo Onorato who had been inspired
by “Moby Vincent”. Completed as “Stena
Normandica” in 1974, “Moby Vincent”
pioneered the ‘box principle’ whereby the
superstructure extended right out to the
stern, maximising the ship’s dimensions
and capacity. When Ørgård left KEH, he
continued to work closely with Onorato
through OSK Design who are both the
naval and interior architects of the 237.0m
long and 33.0m beam “Moby Fantasy”.
Deck 3 vehicle deck with side-hinged ramp cover
ALMOST 4KM OF TRAILERS
The triple stern access and the layout of the
vehicle decks with the fixed ramp arrangements
more or less follows that of DFDS’
GSI-built “Aura/Luna Seaways”, the
concept design of which was equally the
work of OSK Design. However, as foot
passengers board and disembark the vessel
via a stern walkway that connects to a
portside outer casing with escalators,
elevators, and stairs, the outer portside
stern ramp and fixed ramp connecting to
Deck 5 is single lane. The mirror view
outer starboard ramp is twin lane. A
central three-lane ramp gives access to the
main deck, Deck 3. It has a 1,370-lanemetre
capacity with four 3.1m wide lanes
on either side of the central casing. On the
casing’s starboard side, a fixed ramp with
flush two-section side-hinged cover,
connects to the six-lane, 286-lanemetre
lower deck which would be sacrificed
should Moby later decide to retrofit two
LNG storage tanks. Up to 1,217 lanemetres
of freight can be stowed on Deck 5, 120m
of which on the fixed ramps. Two
40-lanemetre capacity single-lane outboard
fixed ramps lead to the 980-lanemetre
top vehicle which has passenger
cabin accommodation forward. Thanks to
the direct ramp access to decks 5 and 7,
RoPax 13 / 05.2024