W&R Shipping Finds Ecospeed to be the Best Coating for its Ice-Going Cargo Fleet

When it comes to protecting the hulls of ice-going vessels, the glassflake reinforced surface treated composite (STC) Ecospeed® has proven to be remarkably durable, typically outperforming many specialized ice class paints. The fact that the coating is non-toxic is also particularly important for ice trading vessels where toxic AF coatings are rapidly scraped off and deposit their toxic ingredients in what are often particularly sensitive environments.

W&R Shipping converted its existing fleet to Ecospeed and specced Ecospeed as the coating for newbuilds ordered. Wim van Ecke explains why.

W&R Shipping
Based in Zwijndrecht, The Netherlands, W&R Shipping was founded in 2005, the result of a cooperation in the shipping business between Captain G.C. (Wim) van Eck and Mr. R.A. (Rob) Stornel, which dates from 1999. (The W is for Wim and the R is for Rob, hence W&R.) Captain Van Eck is the technical supervisor, while Mr. Stornel handles the in-office duties. Both their careers in shipping are longstanding, starting in 1969 for Mr. Stornel and in 1981 for Captain Van Eck.

W&R Shipping specializes in management of multipurpose vessels. In addition to ship and fleet management, W&R Shipping BV also has hands-on experience and expertise in new builds of multipurpose vessels in China, partly on commission.

Trading in ice
Wim van Eck has spent most of his seafaring career as a captain, trading mainly in the North of Europe and the Baltic Sea. “Of course we always were confronted with the fact that in the winter time when you were sailing through the ice your paint was gone and so you had to do something about it in the summer time,” he explains. “You had to drydock in order to repaint.”

In 2007, Wim came across Ecospeed. “I saw it first on a German Interscan vessel which was in almost exactly the same situation as we are and had had the same problems we had,” recalls Wim. Having read of the success Interscan was having with Ecospeed on similar vessels, also trading in Baltic and Northern European ice every winter, W&R decided to try Ecospeed themselves.