Vega 120, A design marvel and an elusive example for new age perfection, yet another category of passenger ferry lined up from Navgathi boat manufacturing facility.
We at Navgathi believe that making the boat efficient should come from firstly the efficient design and secondly by keeping the boat technically fit through efficient maintenance. The fundamental benefits of an effiently designed vessel includes economical and long range operations even in extreme conditions.
VEGA 120, an inland ferry designed and constructed by Navgathi for Kerala Government is an example of efficient boat design. It was a clear goal right from the start that Vega should be one of the most efficient boat in India, once it is taken into operation. We optmised the design not only from a technical and commercial point of view but also based on the future performance under operating conditions.
In the past, fast ferry boats were normally designed and built for relatively high speeds – normally for 10 knots or more. Designers paid full attention to what the performance should be at contract conditions, which were normally design speed and design draft.
The design condition determines the key features like the hull form, rudder and propeller design as well as size of the main engine, including capacities and the layout of auxiliary systems. Very little attention was usually paid to these aspects. We created an hull form with minimum resistance that requires the least propulsion for the all operating conditions The hull optimisation was carried out by experienced engineers using advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools.
When Vega 120 is compared with another modern airconditioned ferry with 100 passenger capacity, it was proven correct. When the 100 pax ferry needs a 220 Hp engine to operate at 12 knots speed, Vega needs only 170 Hp for same speed or higher.
Advanced catamaran hull form in Vega reduces the drag significantly and hence ferry is powered by smaller and efficient diesel engines without compromising the required speed of 13.86knots compared to other similar size ferries which needs bigger engines to attain these speeds. This directly results in less fuel consumption and less vibrations in Vega along with the reduction of the environmental foot print of air pollution.
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