Baleària Floats Out Its First Fully Electric Fast Ferry for the Tarifa-Tangier Route in Gijón

Baleària carried out the float-out of its first 100% electric fast ferry at the Armon Shipyard in Gijón, which will connect Tarifa and Tangier starting in the summer of 2027. The second vessel, currently under construction, will join the fleet after the summer. Both catamarans will operate the first green corridor between Spain and Morocco with power supply and propulsion that are exclusively electric, eliminating emissions, noise and vibrations.

The chairman of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, said that the float-out turns into a tangible reality a strategic project for the shipping company and brings closer the entry into service, in 2027, of the first 100% electric maritime connection between Europe and Africa. Utor pointed out that these vessels move the net-zero emissions target, set for 2050, forward by several decades. For his part, the CEO of Armon, Laudelino Alperi, stated that it is a source of pride to contribute the shipyard's experience and industrial capacity to such an innovative and emblematic project, and highlighted the relationship of trust between the teams of both companies.

The project to build the two vessels and electrify the ports of Tarifa and Tangier City has a cost of more than 200 million euros. The fast ferry that has just come out of the dry dock is the fifth vessel built by Armon for Baleària. The shipyard estimates that the two catamarans generate more than 300 direct jobs daily at its facilities, depending on the project phase, in addition to the indirect employment driven by the construction work.

The vessel has a length overall of 87 meters and an aluminum structure designed to combine lightness, strength and high performance. It incorporates a large-capacity battery system, with 14 MWh of energy storage.

The float-out consists of controlled flooding of the dry dock until the vessel begins to float, and it is one of the main milestones in the construction process. In this case, the operation had an additional particular feature, since the two catamarans are being built in parallel in the same dry dock, with space for one complete vessel and part of the second one; during the float-out of the first unit, the already assembled structure of its sister ship was also left afloat without leaving its position. After the maneuver, the dry dock will be drained again to finish building the second catamaran on dry land, while the first one will undergo interior fit-out, commissioning of its auxiliary systems and sea trials before its final delivery.