KHERSON, JUNE, 23RD, 2008, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE — The Kherson ship-repair factory after Kuybyshev and the Company «Concorde shipping» are completing the construction of a passenger promenade vessel of project PV01 «Empire» for the company «Fos Shipping Management», IA “Context-Prichernomorie” correspondent reports.

The agency was informed about this by the representative of the company referring to the information of the «Sea Engineering Bureau» (Odessa).

Vessel «Empire» is intended for promenade voyage along the coastal line the Black Sea coastal regions. Steam-ship «Empire» s the first passenger ship for more than ten years constructed for transportations of passengers on coastal lines and sea promenades in cities-resorts of the Black Sea coast of the former USSR.

The project of vessel PV01 is developed by the «Sea Engineering Bureau» ( Odessa) and design office «Korvet» (Kherson).

Construction of a vessel is carried out according to the normative document «Construction of the vessels of the internal and mixed navigation (river-sea) with use of elements of maintained vessels» (Instruction R.003-2003) developed by the Russian River Register.

Supervision over designing and construction is carried out by Upper-Volga branch of the RRR.

There are 250 seats for passengers at restaurants and on the open decks of 1-st and 2-nd circles on a vessel.

Overall length – 45.03 m, length between perpendiculars – 43.20 m, overall width 14.05 m, molded breadth 12,52 m, board height — of 2.82 m, draft — 2,28 m.

The Vessel has a bow with inclined stem, a tank, a transom stern end and a cabin in the middle part. The main engines are located in a stern; dwelling and office accommodations are located in a bow. In a stern between decks of 1-st and 2-nd circle a swimming pool is located.

Restaurants are organized in a superstructure of the first and second circles. The restaurant on the first circle is equipped with a stage and a make-up room. There is a VIP organized in the Restaurant of the second circle zone. On the open deck of the first circle the dancing with the bar is located. In a fodder part of a deck of the second circle the pool with vacation spot for passengers is equipped.

The vessel is two-roller, speed in operation 11.0 knots.

Two diesel engines with nominal capacity of 375 kw which work through a reverser-reducers on screws of the fixed step are installed as the main power unit on a vessel.

Auxiliary power unit consists from two diesel engine-generators (capacity — 80 kw and 50 kw accordingly).

Autonomy — 14 hours. Crew (including the attendants) — 17 persons, quantity of passengers — 250 persons.

Vessel «Empire» has been laid on 08.02.2007 and floated on 29.05.2008.

INFORMATION: According to a source, the grandiose program of Sochi development on the threshold of Olympian Games cannot be high-grade without presence of passenger vessels as for carrying out of comfortable sea promenades of relatively short duration (for what «Empire» in particular is intended) and also for high-speed linear coastal transportations of Sochi — Tuapse — Novorossiysk — Yalta and others known lines. For the first time vessels of such purpose («Zarya» and «Zarnitsa») have been constructed in 1928 on Odessa SRF. Every vessel could transport up to 235 passengers. In 1934 in Odessa and Taganrog a serial construction of promenade vessels for roughly developed resorts of the Big Sochi has been organized.

After the Great Patriotic War there were well-known series — «Lastochka», «Almaz», «Magnolia», «Arcadia», «Raduga», «Alexander Green». By 1970 the annual volume of transportations on vessels of such type has reached 40 million passengers, and 40 % of them made Black Sea — Azov resort and beach promenade lines. For the last 15-20 years the quantity of promenade passenger vessels in the Black sea has sharply decreased, the quantity of sea promenades has fallen down to zero.