Roadships America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary or Roadships Holdings Inc, RDSH and in partnership with STX Canada Marine Inc. has been developing a high speed Ro/Ro vessel for use in the U.S.A. and International coastal transport trade routes.

http://www.stxmarine.net/innovation.html

The Pedigree

The pedigree for the High Speed (HS) Monohull design proposed for the Roadships America Inc. program comes from a vessel concept that was initially developed by Kvaerner Masa Yards -Technology (now STX Europe). The HS vessel design was conceived in the early 1990's for short sea shipping transportation throughout Europe using a hull form derived from a high speed ROPAX ferry built at the shipyards in Helsinki, Finland. This hull form was extensively tested and improved over a period of 5 years to optimize the hull form that offers the least resistance and allows the ship to maintain speed up to SS5

                       

The Roadships America vessel is the latest development of the HS concept using a hull form derived from the model test program that allows the use of high output medium speed diesel engines to achieve the service speed of 30 knots. Utilising these new high output engines developed in the last 5 years removes the need for gas turbine propulsion that has a dramatic effect on the economics through significant fuel savings.

The vessels are 200 metres LOA, wave piercing mono-hull design, 30 knot service speed, 25 foot draft, 2430 lane-metres providing a capacity of 148 53' trailers utilising three decks. These vessels are designed for maximum dispatch capability utilising two (2) deck simultaneous load/discharge operations. The General Arrangement provides for astern straight in load/discharge configurations with no turning lanes and minimal obstructions. The vessels will be powered by 4 medium speed diesels.