Seven decades of pioneering

The 35 m long and 6.5 m wide Taurus oil product tanker (IMO no. 6620149) was built as Emstank 10 at German shipyard Julius Diedrich and entered service in 1966. During construction the vessel was equipped with a Becker Flap Rudder – the files on that rudder can now be found in the Becker archives as order no. 32. Since then, several thousand rudder orders have followed for Becker and although more than five decades may have passed by, the faithful Taurus is still in tanker service today. She is owned by Bröring, located in Cuxhaven at the estuary of the Elbe
River. Becker has just received an order to deliver an exact copy to replace the original rudder.

Becker Marine Systems is proud of its ongoing sales success story with specialised rudder solutions for the challenging operating conditions of dredger vessels. Dutch trailing suction hopper dredger Alexander von Humboldt represents an impressive example of dredgers fitted with Becker Rudders. The ship was built at Krupp Fördertechnik shipyard in 1998 and is still in active service for the Jan De Nul Group. The vessel with a length of 120.5 m and a breadth of 24.5 m has a capacity of 9,000 m³ and is fitted with two Becker Flap Rudders.

The tanker Saltstraum was built at the Norwegian Bolsoenes Verft in 1980 for Norwegian ship owner Utkilen AS. With an overall length of 80.17 m, a breadth of 13.0 m and a draught of 5.25 m the Saltstraum was especially designed to serve in the challenging Norwegian coastal waters and the Baltic Sea. This operational area requires maximum vessel manoeuvrability – and in order to meet this demand the Norwegian owner’s choice fell to the Becker Flap Rudder. The faithful Saltstraum is still in service today, having kept her christening name and now owned by KD Bunker of Russia.

The 8,400 TEU Savannah Express container ship will always be special for every member of Becker’s staff. It was the first vessel to be equipped with the new breakthrough Becker Twist Rudder. Installation in 2003 marked the beginning
of a sales success story unlike any other in the company’s history. Becker’s innovative Twist Rudder was designed to solve the problem of cavitation damage caused by the ever increasing speeds of modern vessels, especially large container ships. Those box-hauling ships have been growing ever larger and now have service speeds above 20.0 kn, pushing formerly common semispade rudder designs to their limits in terms of cavitation resistance.
The Becker Twist Rudder proved to be a success far exceeding expectations, becoming standard equipment on container ships worldwide.

The Lysfoss combined pallet carrier and container ship was built at Titovo shipyard in Croatia for Norwegian owner Lys-Line in 1991. Becker Marine Systems delivered a Becker Flap Rudder with King Support Rudder (FKSR) to ensure top manoeuvrability in challenging coastal waters. The vessel has a capacity of 260,000 ft3 for palleted goods and carries 56 standard sized containers (TEU) on deck. Sold in 2004 and renamed Lys Skog until 2009, the vessel is still in service under the charter of DFDS Logistics. Owned by Lorentzens Skibs today, she has been renamed again to its present name Skog.