Virtsu–Kuivastu electric ferry model reaches 14 knots in tank tests

The Estonian State Fleet said on 14 October 2026 that design of Estonia’s first shore-charged electric ferry has reached a milestone. The first model tests of the fifth ferry planned for the Virtsu–Kuivastu route were carried out at the Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt Potsdam (SVA) shipbuilding test centre in Germany. Over a week, the tests assessed the planned ship’s seakeeping and hydrodynamic properties and checked solutions for energy efficiency and the propulsion system.

The tests used an 8.2-metre model that matches the planned ship’s shape and proportions, fitted with scale copies of the thrusters and propellers. Eero Avi, the State Fleet’s ferry-project chief specialist and a naval architect, said energy use is low for the ship’s size and stays inside the contract limit with some margin. He said that although the construction contract sets the maximum speed at 12 knots, the model reached 14 knots, with some power reserve still left.

The next stage is ice-model tests at the end of November at Railotech’s ice-model basin in Finland, covering the hull and propulsion in level ice of varying thickness and in brash ice. The build is co-financed by the EU Modernisation Fund, whose terms require the new ship to be significantly more energy-efficient than the existing vessels. It will have a 3 MWh battery, so that in normal conditions it can run fully on electricity on the route. Biodiesel generators will keep the service running in heavier seas and in emergencies. The range without refuelling is at least 1,000 nautical miles.

Polish yard CRIST S.A. will build the ferry. Its earlier projects include the electric ice-class ferries Altera and Elektra, which operate in Finland. The design is by subcontractor LMG Marin France, whose portfolio includes more than 200 ferries, among them electric and hybrid ships, and which also designed the ferries now on Virtsu–Kuivastu. The design and construction contract is worth 49.93 million euros, with 28 million euros from the EU Modernisation Fund and the rest from Estonia’s national CO₂ quota-sale funds. The ship is to start operating on Virtsu–Kuivastu at the end of 2028.