IMMH

Semi-container ship Holstenracer

Semi-container ship Holstenracer. Her original yard model was built in a scale of 1:100 by the Ihlenfeldt & Berkebeld workshop and is part of our exhibition on modern maritime logistics on deck 6 of the museum.


The MS Holstenracer was one of the 8 ships of the Key-12-class that the shipyard of the AG Weser – Seebeck Werft in Bremerhaven built for the company Claus Peter Offen between the late 1970s and the mid 1980s. Two other slightly modified units were produced for owners from Cameroon. The name of the class makes reference to the key shown in the coat of arms of the Hanseatic City of Bremen.

The Key-12s were semi-container ships, made to transport bulk cargo and containers at the same time. They originally had a capacity fort 576 TEU (standard containers) but they were subsequently modified to carry up to 700 units. The derricks on deck were used to load and unload cargo in harbors lacking the appropriate cranes for the job. This ships are good representatives of the back then ongoing containerisation. They were extremely flexible due to their comparably small size (145x23m) and high speed of 18,3 knots provided by a single propeller powered with 10000 hp by as four-stroke MaK Diesel engine. Even if their size made them obsolete quite fast for any line service, their flexibility kept them useful for chartering in the tramp trade. This provided them with quite long service lives.

The Holstenracer was launched on February the 28th 1981. In 1988 she was shortly renamed Columbus Olivos just to get her original name again one year later. In 1990 she was renamed San Nikolas. On July the 12th 1991 she collided with the Greek tanker Fraternity L off Buenes Aires, where the extensive repairs needed took place. in 1992 her name changed to San Nikolas X and Limassol became her home port. The following years saw many name changes: Holstenracer and St Francis in 1994, Nedlloyd Colorado in 1995, Holstenracer again and Vaimama in 1996. With that name she sailed for the Islamorada Shipping Co Ltd until the year 2000. Then she became the Sea Voyager for the Sea Voyager Shipping Ltd, Gibraltar. She was renamed Yong Wang in 2004 and Yin Yue in 2008, retired and scrapped in 2009.

Her original yard model was built in a scale of 1:100 by the Ihlenfeldt & Berkebeld workshop and is part of our exhibition on modern maritime logistics on deck 6 of the museum.