Iron Manolis at Corpus Christi

Location : Freeport , Texas

I came across the Iron Manolis as she was loading her cargo of Grain at Corpus Christi. It is essentially a gearless bulk carrier. What that means is that it is a bulk carrier that doean't have any cranes or davits to handle any cargo. While this would mean that it would be a problem to handle this ship at small ports, if an owner is confident of his ships run, saving money on the cranes can pay out in the longer run.

The Iron Manolis is a new ship with its keel laid out in 2005 and was launched in 2007. One interesting thing I learnt during research for the Iron Manolis was that it belongs to the Kamsarmax class of bulk carriers. It seems that Kamsarmax bulkcarriers are bulkcarriers of about 82000 DWT, and are basically Panamax bulkcarriers with an extended length.

In the picture above, you can see the Iron Manolis at berth. All its seven hatches are closed and you can even see the head lines going from the bow of the vessel. A tug is tied up on the port shoulder, simply because the berth is crappy. This berth was built in the early part of the century and now it is simply too samll for holding big ships like this. So we have a tug tied up to the ship at all times to keep the vessel alongside and to move it along the jetty for the loading arm. In the background is the Grain silo and the loading arms.

It might intrest the kind reader to know that this vessel, owned by Quintana Maritime Limited, is chartered out under time charter for an average daily rate of $24,500 for 2008. I think I could use a couple of ships like that myself.


Source :  Shipping Times.


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