ABSTRACT: Since January 2021, Havila Kystruten has been one of two companies sailing the coastal route between Bergen and Kirkenes. This paper contains information on the new shipping company Havila Kystruten and their 2019 bid for a 10-year operational license to sail the coastal route. The government's tender documents for the new license specified that the vessels operating the route had to be low-emission vessels. This requirement was in line with the government's white paper on the reduction of emissions for commercial and fishing vessels sailing in Norwegian waters. Thus, companies bidding for the new license had to offer new ships with low emission characteristics or rebuild existing vessels to obtain the low emission requirements. Based on the offers, the government decided to split the operational license between two companies. One part was given to the company previously operating the route (Hurtigruten) and the other to the new company Havila Kystruten. While Hurtigruten would rebuild the engine systems on some of their existing vessels, Havila Kystruten would operate the route using new vessels with low emission signature. The design requirements for these vessels were given by Havila Kystruten to the ship designer, Havyard Design and Solutions (now HAVDesign). Some of the requirements are listed in section 4 below. The latter part of this paper investigates the manoeuvring performance of the new Havila Kystruten vessels, containing a summary of a Research Council of Norway funded innovation project on harsh weather ship handling during port operations. The Port of Trondheim was selected as a case study.

KEYWORDS: Analogical Manoeuvring Simulator, CFD Method, Sea Trial Test, Passenger Vessels, In-Situ Model Test, Low Emission, Batteries, Wind model

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