Thordon Bearings has won the 2025 Motorship Award for T-BOSS, the ship design which replaces a traditional sterntube with a space that allows inspection and maintenance of a seawater-lubricated bearing and seal arrangement from inside the ship.
The award, presented at the Motorship Propulsion & Future Fuels Conference in Hamburg, Germany, on the 25th of November, recognizes innovative partnerships that result in low-emissions maritime solutions. T-BOSS – the Thordon - Blue Ocean Stern Space – was developed by a consortium of maritime partners consisting of ABS, Thordon Bearings, Wärtsilä Shaft Line Solutions, CSSC-SDARI (Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute), and the National Technical University of Athens.
The innovative solution replaces the conventional sterntube and cooling tank with a dry chamber housing a single seawater-lubricated, non-metallic Thordon COMPAC bearing. In addition to minimizing shipbuilding costs with the removal of the sterntube and oil sealing system, the design significantly reduces operating expenditure.
“It is an honour to accept this prestigious award on behalf of Thordon Bearings and the wider consortium,” commented Martin Linder, Merchant Fleet Business Development Manager Northern Europe, Thordon Bearings. “By combining the traditional principles of seawater lubrication with modern design, T-BOSS establishes a new solution to help ship owners and builders eliminate oil discharges into our oceans.”
Accessed through an opening in the bulkhead and large enough for an engineer or surveyor to stand up in, the new space allows inspection and maintenance to take place without withdrawing the shaft or the vessel entering drydock, significantly reducing maintenance costs. A shorter shaftline also means increased cargo capacity or engine room space to include a shaft generator, which not only enhances profitability but also minimizes fuel consumption and emissions per capacity tonne-mile for improved Energy Efficiency Design Index – EEDI – ratings.
Using seawater as its lubricant means that Thordon’s COMPAC bearing eliminates the pollution risks and costs associated with emergency oil seal repairs, while the lower friction results in further fuel and emissions savings. In fact, operational ship data suggests that reduced fuel consumption and OPEX combined with higher vessel utilization could add up to gains of more than US$1 million over the ship’s lifespan.