According to Blue Ocean Alliance’s Chris Leontopoulos, future newbuild ships of all types should be built without a sterntube and with a seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing arrangement.
Mr. Leontopoulos said the sterntubeless ship design – jointly developed by Blue Ocean Alliance members ABS, Thordon Bearings, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI), Wärtsilä, and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) – is so commercially, operationally and...