Construction is progressing on Atlantic Container Line’s new G4 vessels, which will be the largest RORO/Containerships in the world. The G4 vessels will replace ACL’s existing fleet of G3’s operating in the company’s transatlantic service.
The new G4 Fleet is being named Atlantic Star, Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Skyand Atlantic Sun. Andrea Cox, who started with ACL in September 1996, submitted the winning names. Andrea is a Customer Service Representative at ACL’s Halifax Customer Service Center. Andrea said she chose the names based on her daily experience with customers.
When the construction of the G‐4’s began in 2013, ACL’s parent company, the Grimaldi Group, decided that ACL’s employees would hold a contest to name the new vessels. Over 5,000 name proposals were received. Each ACL country manager and department manager picked his/her favorite 25 sets of 5 names. The most frequently selected 25 name sets were submitted to Grimaldi Group Management in Italy, who chose the winner.
The new G4 vessels will be bigger, faster, greener and more efficient than their predecessors. The G4’s will have a container capacity of 3,800 TEUs plus 28,900 square meters of RORO space, with a car capacity of 1307 vehicles. The new ships will continue to employ cell‐guides on deck, a feature that will allow ACL to extend its enviable record of never losing a container at sea in over 30 years. The first ACL G4 will enter service next summer, followed every two months by a sister vessel until the entire ACL fleet is replaced.
