Viking Line is one of Finland’s largest shipping companies. With seven vessels, including the M/S Gabriella, the company offers passenger travel and cargo carrier services on routes connecting Finland, Sweden and Estonia.
The Gabriella is one of the two ferries sailing between Sweden and Finland, travelling the Helsinki-Stockholm route every other day of the week. The cruise ferry takes about 2,400 passengers and a crew of 170, and can load about 300 cars or 900 meters of semi-trailer trucks.
A year ago the 25 year old vessel underwent a major renovation and upgrade project before returning to its voyages across the Baltic Sea.
To ensure the best possible cruise experience for the passengers, Gabriella’s cabins and entertainment areas such as spa premises, restaurants and duty-free area were upgraded. In addition, some of its deck equipment was also upgraded, including the mooring winch systems.
As a long-standing ABB customer, Viking Line turned to ABB once again to implement a state-of-the-art mooring winch solution comprising latest motor and variable frequency drive (VFD) technology.
Smooth cruising from the beginning to the end
Mooring is one of the essential aspects of the cruise that is often overlooked. It needs to be as safe and smooth as possible regardless of how harsh the weather conditions, how high the waves and how much the draft changes at harbor.
An automooring system is crucial for a cruise ferry like the Gabriella since its draft in the water can vary considerably as hundreds of vehicles and thousands of passengers board and disembark. So constant, precise adjustment to the mooring winches is vital to maintain the correct tension in the ropes.
Following the hand-mooring procedure, and with the rope already pre-tensioned, automooring can be enabled. This is a speed control application with torque limitation for smooth stepless mooring.