The three steel sections built in Poland by Rauma Marine Construction's (RMC) subcontractor, are each 9.9 metres high and 30.6 metres wide and will, in the future, form one of the underwater sections of the vessel reaching from the keel to the car deck.

It is very common nowadays in shipbuilding to subcontract the construction of some of the ship's elements to other shipyards to expedite the ship construction process as different elements of the vessel can be constructed at different shipyards simultaneously, thus reducing the overall construction time.

The former Gdanska Shipyard was the shipyard where the one-time Estonian flagship vessel GEORG OTS was built and where the former Polish President Lech Walesa once worked as an electrician. Today, several smaller shipyards operate in the area, offering subcontracting services to larger shipyards like RMC.

The steel sections are expected to arrive in Rauma late next week, weather permitting.

This week also saw the testing of the fourth main engine of MYSTAR in Augsburg, Germany by the ship's engine manufacturers MAN Energy Solutions. So far three of the main engines have already been completed and tested by MAN Energy Solutions and the last main engine will be completed and tested in late August. The first main engine was transported by railway transport to Rauma in mid-July, the second and third main engines are currently being prepared for transport and will be heading for Rauma also in the near future.

Commenting on the MYSTAR construction progress and the activities carried out this week, Tallink Grupp's Head of Ship Management and Chief Captain Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik said:

"We are very pleased with the progress made with the MYSTAR construction despite the significant challenges faced by all our project partners due to the COVID-19 global pandemic this year. All the activities are on track according to the original plans, all the teams are working hard to ensure work continues according to schedule and every week we see huge steps being taken forward, taking us closer to some of the next big milestones, such as the keel laying for example.

"As the borders around Europe now once again allow us to travel, our own project team leaders have been able to visit the shipyards and manufacturers around Europe where various components of our new vessel are being produced and ensure we have oversight of and are pleased with the quality of every single element produced for MYSTAR."

"It is good to see the progress of the project despite of various challenges faced due to the COVID- 19 pandemic. It is also great that the representatives of the customer can return to the shipyard and project related issues can be handled normal way. Due to well progress of main equipment such as steel sections, main engines, generators, LNG tanks etc. the preconditions for building of MYSTAR are good," Marko Paloluoto, MYSTAR Project Manager at RMC commented.

The next big milestone of the MYSTAR project will be the keel laying for the vessel, which is currently scheduled to take place at the Rauma shipyard in September this year.