Biocide-free Intersleek foul release pays off for NCL

As part of its commitment to the environment, Norwegian Cruise Line applied International Paint’s biocide free, Intersleek foul release coatings to the 78,309 grt cruise ship Norwegian Sun when it was built at German shipbuilder Meyer Werft in 2001.

Ten years later, the Intersleek system has only needed touch-up repairs, significantly reducing overall paint volume, packaging, waste and VOC emissions. Because full coats were not necessary, drydocking time and costs were also significantly reduced.

During Norwegian Sun’s dry dock in the Bahamas in January 2011, it was noted that the Intersleek(R) system had performed well and was in good condition with no animal or weed fouling.

Commenting on the performance of the Intersleek system, Mr. Brian Swensen, NCL’s Senior Vice President, Technical Operations, said, “We are very pleased with the performance of the Intersleek system. At Norwegian Sun’s two interim dry-docks, we only applied a total of 600 liters of Intersleek. For a standard antifouling system, we would have used approximately 6,000 liters. This has resulted in a 90 percent reduction in VOC emissions and a 100 percent reduction in biocide release. The fact that no full coats were required meant that the dockings in 2004 and 2007 were completed ahead of schedule with lower paint and application costs than expected.”

Intersleek has now been applied on more than 500 passenger vessels over the last 15 years, including 100 cruise vessels. Many of these vessels have achieved significant efficiency improvements with reduced environmental , says International Paint.

March 18, 2011