30
model navigation bridges. Once the ship was
finished, the skipper told us that he felt he had
been on the bridge before and knew exactly
how it looked and functioned. He had utilised
the 3D model extensively and had already
used it to train the staff as well. That was
wonderful to hear.”
“The problem was that the computers
were the size of cupboards back then. We
were ahead of our time and even our own
organisation. We spent a lot of money on
the conceptual 3D modelling, as we knew
this type of system would really offer huge
benefits for concept design, but we were
simply too early on the market,” says Kanerva.
However, Deltamarin grew into the
largest ship design company in Europe
towards the end of the 90s, with 1999 showing
a doubling of turnover from the previous
year. The company had continuous success
in export markets, the most important
areas being Germany, Spain, Norway,
Italy, Denmark, USA, France and Greece.
The demand for passenger cruise ships
Baltic ro-ro/train ferry
Skåne built at the
Astilleros Españoles
shipyard in Puerto Real,
Spain, originally for
the Swedish operator
SweFerry.
(PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN)
and ferries had remained high for several
years, and Deltamarin had several design
agreements well into 2005. The majority of
orders from countries such as the United
States and Norway were cruise ships and
offshore units, while special ships and car
ferries were in high demand in Europe.
“We thought the tide had turned the
previous summer, but the boom just seemed
to continue,” said Managing Director Jukka
Laiterä in an interview with the Finnish
Kauppalehti newspaper at the time.
Deltamarin was also working on the
residential cruise ship MS World of ResidenSea,
first contracted in Kiel, but finally built in
Fosen shipyard in Norway, and also on the
American Classic Voyages’ cruise liner project
for Hawaiian trades. Some of the vessels being
finalised in 1999 included the Eagle-class
Voyager of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise
ship at the time, which was built at the shipyard
in Turku, and the Tunisian passenger car ferry
Carthage also built at Fosen shipyard.