NKK (Nippon Kokan) of Japan built the 42,000-dwt car/bulk carrier Merak Eighty — fitted with temporarily hoistable cardecks—for Irvine Shipping Inc. of Liberia. The bulk carrier is NKK's first new vessel to be equipped with hoistable decks. She was built at the Shimizu Shipyard.
The cardeck installation, called NKK-Kvaerner Hoistable Car Deck System, is applicable to vessels having topside wing tanks, and provides temporary decks in the recessed space between the topside tanks and the tank tops by utilizing hold space to a minimum.
Merak Eighty has a length between perpendiculars of 184.50 meters, molded beam of 30.48 meters, molded depth of 17.75 meters, and draft of 11.55 meters (605.3/100/58.2/37.9 feet). Her single main engine is an NKK/S.E.M.T. Pielstick 10PC4-V570 diesel with a maximum continuous rating of 15,000 bhp at 400 rpm, providing a service speed of 15.1 knots. Car capacity is approximately 2,650 units.
The basic concept of the hoistable deck technology is that dur-