Grande Napoli

There was a break from the usual car carriers with today's arrival of Grande Napoli. We don't see too many Grimaldi Group ships at Autoport. As parent company of Atlantic Container Line, of course we see at least one or two of their ships a week. In fact Atlantic Compass was tying up at Fairview Cove at the same time.

 Tugs Atlantic Willow (bow) and Atlantic Larch (stern) take control of Grande Napoli while it makes a wide turn around Ives Knoll into the number one anchorage area at 1649 hrs. The ship was due to tie up at Autoport not before 1800, and so they had some time to waste.

Grimaldi's directly owned autocarriers are painted in a yellow and white scheme, which is quite impressive in the bright sun of the Mediterranean. They aren't quite so spectacular on a gloomy late afternoon in January in Halifax!

Grande Napoli measures 44,408 grt, and was built in 2003. It did not come from one of the specialist Japanese yards however, but was built at the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia. It flies the Italian flag.

Grimaldi Group is a major operator in passenger ferry, RoRo and Con-Ro, for more see:


http://www.net.grimaldi.co.uk/GNET45/

http://www.grimaldishipping.com/en/the_fleet.html

 Speaking of Con-Ros, this week I will feature Con-Ros in the past tense - as in where have they all gone?

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