The Eleanor Roosevelt de Baleària, the world’s first fast ferry with natural gas engines, has set sail today from the Armon shipyard in Gijón, where it was built, bound for Dénia, where it is scheduled to begin operating on May 1, joining this peninsular port with Ibiza and Palma. Baleària adds a new milestone in international maritime transport thanks to this ship whose main axes are innovation, sustainability, comfort and speed.
“We want to promote the Balearic Islands, a destination in which we have always been involved and with whose citizens we are firmly committed, positioning our most revolutionary, green and smart boat”, said Adolfo Utor, president of Baleària. In addition, he stressed that “the supply of high-speed passenger seats on this route will increase by 60% and the hold will double with respect to the current one”, since the ship has capacity for 1,200 passengers and 450 vehicles.
A sustainable catamaran
The Eleanor Roosevelt , which began to be built at the end of 2018, is the seventh Baleària ship to use this fuel that reduces polluting emissions and that last year already allowed the shipping company to stop emitting 37,000 tons of CO2. It is estimated that each year the Eleanor Roosevelt will reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to eliminating more than 8,900 conventional passenger cars or planting almost 27,000 trees. The actual fuel consumption and the efficiency of the engines will be monitored thanks to the measurement equipment and sensors installed on board, within the framework of a project co-financed by CEF funds from the European Commission.
Comfort on board
Baleària is explaining through Instragram and Facebook the journey from the port of Gijón to Dénia, where it plans to arrive on Thursday. Thus, followers of social networks will be able to find out about the services of the ship, which has various cafeterias, as well as a food truck on the outside deck and a children’s area. Digitization is a differentiator: the Eleanor Roosevelt offers a free platform for digital entertainment, video surveillance of pets, Internet and WhatsApp coverage for text messages throughout the journey. In addition, passengers will receive the boarding pass through WhatsApp, with the indication of the assigned seat. On the other hand, the new catamaran has high-tech innovations that considerably reduce movement, vibrations and noise, and the interior spaces are spacious and bright to offer a comfortable crossing.
Investment
The shipping company has invested 90 million euros in this new fast ferry, and has received financing from CaixaBank. The financing operation, for a value of 66 million euros, was carried out through a loan fully covered by CaixaBank. In addition, the financing and construction of the ship, which has been carried out at the Armon shipyard, has been structured through a Tax Lease operation between CaixaBank and Arcano. In this way, CaixaBank thus reinforces the implementation of the principles of responsible investment and is committed to sustainable investment as a strategy to manage global risks.
