Unusually, both Eckerö Line’s Finlandia and Eckerö Linjen’s Eckerö ferries were side by side in Turku Repair Yard’s drydock in January for regular inspection, maintenance and, in Finlandia’s case, renovations of some public areas. The technical maintenance included replacing the propeller blades on both ships to reduce vibrations at high speeds.
Finlandia operates on the Helsinki-Tallinn route, making four crossings a day, while Eckerö sails from her home port of Eckerö in Åland to Grisslehamn, Sweden two to four times a day.
Costing €4 million, Finlandia’s refit involves all the retail outlets being moved into one area and a lounge relocated to the deck above, adjacent to the expanded conference. One of her fuel tanks has been converted to a heat accumulator to store cooling system waste heat, cutting costs and emissions. The smaller Eckerö, drydocked for €1 million, started life as Jens Koefed, sailing to the Baltic island of Bjørnholm from Denmark before becoming Eckerö in 2005. JP
