New car carrier for Grimaldi launched at Uljanik shipyard
And as GRANDE COLONIA takes to the water, another one has her keel laid

A great number of visitors watched as Grimaldi's latest car carrier, the GRANDE COLONIA, was launched at hte Uljanik shipyard at 2pm on Saturday (21st July 2007)

The 12,500 dwt ship can carry 4350 cars and is the elventh in the series for the Italian shipping firm.

In hot weather the ship was launched by Ms Maria Rosalia Marmo, wife of Mr Pierluigi Marmo – the representative of the Grimaldi Group who was also present at the launching with his colleagues .

There were also present Uljanik's representatives:
Mr Anton Brajković – President of Uljanik Group Board of Directors and Mr Marinko Brgić – President of Uljanik Brodogradilište d.d. Managing Board, while the welcome speech was made by Mr Silvan Kranjc – Member of Uljanik Brodogradilište d.d. Managing Board.

In his speech he expressed his satisfaction that after a year Grimaldi was cooperating again with Uljanik, and that in the years to follow the cooperation would  intensify due to the construction of seven Ro-Ro car truck carriers.

Mr Kranjc also congratulated Uljanik's workers who had, under extremely hard weather conditions, completed the work in time and achieved a high degree of completion of the ship and quality.

 
The contract for GRANDE COLONIA  was signed on 2nd March,2004 and the keel was laid on 17th March,2007.

The ship has ten garage decks, having a total parking area of 36,542 sq. metres and she is the last of four identical ships built for the Italian buyer.

The ship's length is 176.70 m, breadth 31.10 m, depth 28 m. She is driven by an Uljanik/MAN-B&W main engine having an output of 11,060 kW achieving a speed of max 20.3 knots.

After the launching , there was laid on the slipway the keel for Hull No. 471 – the sixth 4,900 car-truck carrier of the series for Ray Shipping having a deadweight of 12,300dwt.